What Is ATSC 3.0: The Latest Updates on the New Standard

Back in February, the industry was abuzz about ATSC 3.0 and its possibilities for transforming television, especially local TV.

There was the hope that ATSC 3.0 would lead to a more level playing field by enabling local stations to sell their data as well as leverage new technological capabilities such as on-demand.
Since then, though there has been a lot of quiet, behind-the-scenes work, the lack of public announcements has led to some questions about its progress. So, what is ATSC 3.0’s current status?

Current Build-Out Status

According to ATSC, work on ATSC 3.0 is divided into layers:

• Physical – the core transmission system for over-the-air broadcasting usability and quality. This has been tentatively adopted by the industry.
• Management and Protocol – the plumbing that connects the physical layer with the application layer, enabling things like delivery, personalization, and interaction. A consensus has been reached, although details are still being worked out.
• Application and Presentation – handles viewer experiences involving video and audio coding and the run-time environment. Key features will include enhanced TV, on-demand, subscriptions, digital rights, mobile and fixed devices, and hybrid delivery with pushed content.
• Extensibility – methods that will allow ATSC 3.0 to keep up with industry changes as the initial technology improves and advances.

Though these layers are in progress, much work remains.

Read the full article on the Videa blog.