NextGen TV: Using the Lighthouse Model to Make the Transition to ATSC 3.0

Despite any rumors you may have heard, broadcast is far from dead. In fact, some could say, it’s just getting started. The ongoing deployment of the ATSC 3.0 digital TV standard in broadcast television markets across the country represents a major leap forward for over-the-air TV.

Also known as NextGen TV, this new cutting-edge broadcast transmission standard is the biggest technological update to the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s standard for receiving over-the-air (OTA) signals since ATSC 1.0 was approved by the FCC in 1996.

The standard promotes consumer-friendly features like 4K ultra high-definition video, Dolby audio and mobile reception, as well as many interactive and personalization features traditionally offered only by streaming platforms. Benefits to broadcasters are equally enticing, including the ability to capitalize on new content opportunities and unlock new revenue streams. Now licensed to operate in 68 markets and commercially deployed in 50 markets, NextGen TV is expected to reach more than 82% of US households by the end of 2022.

Skip Pizzi, one of the key developers of the ATSC 3.0 digital TV standard, is project manager for the NextGen TV transition of New York City’s WENT — the first station to convert to ATSC 3.0 technology in the largest US media market. He also served as the vice president of technology education and outreach for the National Association of Broadcasters, and chairs the ATSC’s Brazil Implementation Team (IT-4), which is working with Brazilian broadcasters and technologists to select that country’s next-generation television standard.

In a comprehensive presentation outlining ATSC 3.0’s one-to-many “lighthouse” OTA delivery model, Pizzi described the current transition to NextGen TV at the July 2022 joint Society of Broadcast Engineers/SMPTE meeting.

“There is no new spectrum available anymore,” he said during the session, recounting the FCC’s reallocation of broadcast TV spectrum rights beginning in 2016, leading to today’s deficit.

“We’re pretty much packed down to the maximum right now, so there’s no additional spectrum available for us to do a 1.0 to 3.0 transition with complete new channels. So the way it’s being done is through a sort of a channel sharing across every market,” in a new distribution model called reciprocal sharing.

“The lighthouse is the term used most often to encapsulate this idea,” Pizzi said. “Let’s say that a typical lighthouse has maybe five stations involved, and that these five stations get together in a given market and say, ‘Okay, one of us is going to go to 3.0 today, and the other four will pick up services from the 3.0 channel that will now no longer be viewable by legacy receivers.’

“And so the other stations say, ‘We’ll carry your content in 1.0 if you carry all of our content in 3.0.’ And because 3.0 can carry about five times the content that a 1.0 channel can [handle], it’s no problem for one 3.0 signal to carry all those other stations 1.0 content. And if there’s capacity available, and this is different in every market, hopefully all the services that the 3.0 channel had on the air before they switched can be carried across the different other channels by the other members of that lighthouse.”

Pizzi notes that the FCC had to change some of its rules to enable the shift to the lighthouse model. “This whole 3.0 transition is voluntary, so nobody has to do it,” he said. “But if you’re going to do it, you do have to follow certain rules because FCC wanted to make sure no consumers lost any services.”

In a nutshell, broadcasters making the switch to ATSC 3.0 are partnering with legacy stations to carry their old 1.0 content so coverage remains the same. While the process is far from seamless — stations must provide converters to households that request it — the lighthouse model is paving the way to a new era of broadcast television. Watch the full presentation in the video at the top.

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