Today the Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group have announced a tentative agreement to roll out the new 3.0 over the air TV standard in 97 markets.

So what does that mean? This should speed up the roll out and help get more 4K over the air TV to you sooner than you may have thought possible.

“We look forward to working with Nexstar to enable new and innovative services that add value to the viewers we serve, our advertising clients and our broadcast assets. Sinclair and Nexstar are leading the broadcast industry in this critical technology upgrade and we are confident that through our coordination and mutual efforts we can navigate this transition together,” said Chris Ripley, president, and CEO of Sinclair.

So what is ATSC 3.0 the new over the air TV Standard?

Well ATSC 3.0 means free 4K is coming to over-the-air TV. ATSC 3.0 allows pinpoint alerts and better accessibility for disabled viewers. These pinpoint alerts mean just the town that is being affected by severe weather, for example, will receive a weather alert.

In short the 3.0 standard will bring new options to cord cutters and better technology for offering customized broadcasts to specific locations.

“We’re delighted that the commission has begun the formal process of approving use of this revolutionary capacity for broadcasters with the significant commitment of Chairman Pai to move quickly to final rules,” said Jerald Fritz, executive vice president of One Media, the Sinclair spin-off company pushing for the advanced standard. (Sinclair was a pioneer in pushing for an advanced, mobile, broadcast transmission standard).

“The opportunities opened are immense, and we’d like to begin providing these enhanced services to our viewers as quickly as possible,” Fritz added. “The convergence of Next Gen deployment and the broadcast station repack marks both a practical and strategic relaunch of the broadcast business model.”

“We applaud the Commission’s balanced and deliberate NPRM,” said Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the American Television Alliance, whose members include cable and satellite MPVDs. “We believe it will provide for a robust discussion of the critical issues and help ensure that the proposed transition benefits all broadcast television viewers regardless of whether they receive those signals over the air or from a pay TV provider.”

For now, it looks like 2018 will still be the soonest we will see any TVs switching over to the 3.0 standard.

Source: TVTechnology

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