OMAHA, Neb.—Five stations in Omaha have announced that they’ve begun offering viewers NextGen TV (aka ATSC 3.0) broadcasts.
The April 19 launch includes KETV (the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate), KMTV-TV (the Scripps-owned CBS affiliate), WOWT (the Gray Television-owned NBC affiliate), KPTM (the Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate), and KXVO (the Mills Telecasting TBD affiliate).
In the run-up to the launch, KXVO, owned by Mitts Telecasting, converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions. KXVO is now broadcasting its own programming, as well as the programming of the other participating stations, in NextGen TV format. All the programming of each participating station will continue to be available in the existing DTV format, which all modern television sets can receive.
BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the five television stations.
This latest deployment marks the 50th market to launch ATSC 3.0 in the U.S. About 75% of U.S. TV households are expected to be within range of receiving ATSC 3.0 by the end of 2022, according to the ATSC.
CTA estimates that 3 million NextGen TV compatible TV sets have been sold in the U.S. so far and predicts sales of 4.5 million of the sets to be sold by the end of 2022.
TV Tech has been tracking all the markets that are planning to or have launched ATSC 3.0 broadcasts here.
For more information, visit TV Tech's NextGen TV page.
