Ten years after it replaced North America’s NTSC, a set of standards for TV transmission, the ATSC just launched the third version of its specifications – and that has some in the industry excited.
Coming from the Advanced Television Systems Committee, ATSC 3.0 includes support for the HEVC codec at up to 2160p 4K resolution, wide color gamut, high dynamic range, Dolby AC-4 and MPEG-H 3D Audio, datacasting and targeted advertising.
The ability for advertisers to garner viewer ratings right off TV devices rather than go through companies like Nielsen initially raised some consumer concern.
But ATSC 3.0, approved on September 19, is seen as positive by many inside the industry.
“I’m very excited about the adoption of ATSC 3.0,” says Hilton Howell, CEO of Gray TV, Atlanta-based owner of TV stations in 93 markets. “I think that’s really going to be another remarkable game changer.
“It comes in, it’s really an enabler. If you think about it, 12 years ago, we got our first mobile phone that was actually a smartphone. Who would’ve thought 12 years ago that the mobile phone could do all that it does today?
“We think ATSC 3.0 is going to do the exact same thing for the broadcast industry across the board, because that technology is going to allow us to open up a million different opportunities, some of which we don’t even anticipate today.”
The interview took place at the at the TVB Forward conference in New York. The series is sponsored by WideOrbit.
