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A decade and a half after television stations shut down analog broadcasts and fully transitioned to digital, the industry is once again making major changes to the way stations transmit signals over the air.
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With all the streaming and cable options out there, about a fifth of Americans still watch at least some TV with an old antenna. The stations have been working to improve their signals, promising better reception and clearer images, but the rollout has been bumpy. Here’s Matt Sepic from Minnesota Public Radio.
MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: If you’ve bought a TV lately, you’ve probably seen the terms 4K Ultra HD and high dynamic range. That’s not just marketing hype. The new computers can display images with much more detail, richer colors and deeper contrast than their predecessors. Services like Netflix have been streaming high-resolution videos for years. Now, traditional broadcasters are catching up. Anne Schelle is part of the commercial consortium supporting a new wireless system called NextGen TV. She says it’s a response to viewer demand.
ANNE SCHELLE: They want better quality. They want 4K, high dynamic range, which is now available for video, better audio quality and interactive services.
SEPIC: NextGen is the biggest change in television broadcasting since 2009, when stations shut down the analog signals they had been broadcasting since the 1940s and transitioned entirely to digital. The rollout of NextGen, also known as ATSC 3.0, began three years ago. Today, it is available to about three-quarters of Americans, mostly in major cities. He arrived in Minneapolis-St. Paul a few months ago, and electronics enthusiast Eric Koester was eager to try it out. He bought a NextGen receiver as soon as they came on the market. Koester plugged in an antenna and connected the box to the television in his living room. Using a remote control, he tunes in to the local ABC affiliate.
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LEAH MCLEAN: Hello, everyone. I’m glad you’re with us here for 5 Eyewitness News today at 4:30. I’m Leah McLean.
PAUL FOLGER: I’m Paul Folger. There’s a lot going on right now. We want to reach meteorologist Matt Serwe.
ERIC KOESTER: This app will connect to the tuner and we can see what the ATSC 3 signal looks like.
SEPIC: The picture looks very good, but Koester says it is still no better than the original digital channels. This is because most stations do not yet produce programs in ultra high definition. Koester then changes the channel and points out an issue that has plagued many early NextGen users. Some stations are encrypted.
KOESTER: If you tune in, try to tune in one of the others, we get that we can’t play the channel; Content protection is required.
SEPIC: Anne Schelle of the broadcasters group says this content protection is necessary to prevent people from copying shows and distributing them illegally online. And she points out that newer TVs with built-in NextGen receivers don’t have the blocked channel problem. She says set-top box manufacturers are working on software updates.
But now, NextGen faces another hurdle. Amid a patent dispute, electronics giant LG, one of the main sponsors of this technology, is removing it from its latest line of televisions. Consumer Reports electronics editor James Willcox says NextGen promises big improvements for over-the-air television, but he worries that stations could limit viewers’ ability to delay shows and save recordings, which they have done for decades.
JAMES WILLCOX: It’s giving broadcasters technological capabilities that they didn’t have until now. This is a cause for concern and consumer groups are watching what happens in this regard.
SEPIC: After the first digital switch 15 years ago, viewers had to upgrade their televisions or purchase a converter box. During this transition, the FCC requires stations to continue using the old format along with the new one until mid-2027. Given the challenges with the launch of NextGen, Willcox and other observers expect the FCC to extend that expiration date.
For NPR News, I’m Matt Sepic in Minneapolis.
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