ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Four stations serving the Albuquerque-Santa Fe television market began broadcasting programming using the NextGen TV aka ATSC 3.0 standard on December 13.
The launch involved KOAT-TV (the Hearst Television-owned ABC affiliate), KRQE (the Nexstar-owned CBS and Fox affiliates), KWBQ (the Mission Broadcasting-owned CW affiliate) and KASY-TV (the Mission Broadcasting-owned MyNet affiliate).
The launch involved months of planning and preparation by the local stations. KASY-TV, which is owned by Mission, has converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. KASY-TV will broadcast its own programming, as well as the programming of the other participating stations, in NextGen TV format.
All programming of all participating stations will continue to be available in the existing DTV format, which can be received on all modern television sets. BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the four television stations.
Previously, New Mexico PBS (“NMPBS”) stations KNME-TV, Albuquerque, and KNMD-TV, Santa Fe, began offering both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 services with KNME-TV as the 1.0 host and KNMD-TV as the 3.0 host.
TV Tech has compiled a list of all the markets where NextGen TV signals have been launched that is available here.
A survey of the major developments in NextGen TV broadcasting in 2022 is available here.
