Nexstar, Sinclair consortium to promote ATSC 3.0
March 16, 2017
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group have revealed they plan to establish a consortium that will “promote spectrum aggregation, innovation and monetisation and enhance their abilities to compete in the wireless data transmission sector.”
The consortium, which will be jointly owned and controlled equally by Nexstar and Sinclair, has agreed to collaborate on a non-exclusive basis and the companies said the consortium “is intent on exploring the inclusion of other television broadcasting entities.”
Unlike prior industry efforts that the two say were based on flawed technology, this consortium has been established in anticipation of the adoption of the ATSC 3.0 Next Generation broadcast transmission standard. The consortium, the companies said, “will promote innovation and develop and explore products and services associated with 3.0 and monetisation opportunities such as spectrum utilisation, virtual MVPD platforms, multicast channels, automotive applications, single frequency networks and wireless data applications, among others.”
Upon adoption of ATSC 3.0, consumers will be able to integrate video content and data across numerous “smart” devices. With the proper technology and data gathering methodologies, Nexstar and Sinclair say they expect to capture significant and meaningful information relating to consumers’ actual viewing and consumption behaviours. “As a result, broadcasters will no longer have to rely on expensive third party measurement services with small sample sizes and unverified results.”