SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Residents in the Central Valley can now get a taste of the future as six Sacramento television stations have banded together to launch NextGenTV broadcasts.
The six local stations launching the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts are KOVR (the CBS owned and operated station, Channel 13), Hearst Television-owned KCRA (NBC, Channel 3) and KQCA (MyNetwork, Channel 58), Nexstar-owned KTXL (Fox, Channel 40), Tegna’s KXTV (ABC, Channel 10), and Univision’s KUVS (Univision, Channel 19). Hearst’s KQCA is serving as the stations’ lighthouse for NextGen TV services for the market.
“We’re proud to partner with our fellow broadcasters to prepare the Sacramento market for the next generation of TV viewing,” said Ariel Roblin, president and general manager of KCRA-TV. “With NextGen TV, viewers are immersed in stunning video with brilliant color, sharper images, and deeper contrast, making them feel like they’re part of the action. Offering a whole new dimension to TV viewing with audio from the Dolby audio system Voice +, available only on NextGen TV, viewers will feel the power of movie theater-quality sound, allowing them to hear every voice clearly and offering uniform volume across different channels.”
Sacramento is the first city in Northern California to launch commercial NextGen TV services, joining nearly 40 other early-adopter cities across the country where the service is already available – from Orlando to Phoenix and Seattle to Buffalo.
While features available on NextGen TV will vary by device and by broadcaster as commercial service becomes available in local markets, it is designed to be upgradable, enabling a viewer’s television set to advance in lock-step with the latest technology.
“Viewers in the state’s capital have a lot to be excited about, as NextGen TV will change the way they experience live broadcast television, and it will continue to get better as local stations add more features,” stated Kurt Rao, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Tegna. “NextGen TV ensures the future of television, where content and the experience of watching culminate – informing, entertaining, and inspiring viewers.”
“NextGen TV is changing the way viewers watch live broadcast television and revolutionizing their interactions with their home screens, by merging over-the-air TV with the internet,” added Anne Schelle, managing director of Pearl TV, the broadcaster business group that is coordinating NextGen TV station launches. “Because NextGen TV can also be enhanced with internet content, viewers in Sacramento will be able to get the most out of live programming, such as news, events, and sports.”
Sacramento viewers can learn more about NextGen TV by visiting www.watchnextgentv.com, which offers a guide to cities carrying the service, as well as links to available NextGen TV models.
Click here for a map and list of where NextGen TV is now deployed.
