NEXTGEN TV ecosystem hits milestones
December 16, 2022
By Colin Mann
Pearl TV, the coalition of US broadcast companies transitioning to digital television standard NEXTGEN TV, is claiming major milestones in the rollout of NEXTGEN TV to US households and the broader ecosystem of partners that enable the deployment of devices and the broadcaster application platform, RUN3TV. These latest developments focus on consumer and innovation options for electronics manufacturers and further underscore NEXTGEN TV’s trajectory to universal availability.
“NEXTGEN TV has enabled television to shed its traditional linear viewing experience so that viewers can lean into the news and entertainment with better engagement,” said Pearl TV managing director Anne Schelle. “Pearl TV’s growing FastTrack programme is generating results that will boost household penetration even further, expanding into the low-cost and accessory device market to reach even more viewers,”
Consumers can find NEXTGEN TV-enabled televisions from Hisense, Sony, LG Electronics and Samsung at national retailers.
MediaTek, a partner in the ‘FastTrack to NEXTGEN TV’ programme that accelerates and streamlines the path for adoption of NEXTGEN TV technology by consumer electronic makers producing smart TVs and related devices at volume, has moved into commercial production of its TV System on Chip (SoC) ATSC3 demodulators.
A second partner, software maker iWedia, joined the MediaTek and Pearl TV partnership, creating a product that includes MediaTek’s latest SoC and iWedia’s leading-edge NEXTGEN TV software stack. It will be pre-certified for compliance with the Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) NEXTGEN TV logo requirements, A3SA Security and the RUN3TV Application platform.
Available in Q1 2023, MediaTek and iWedia’s total solutions will help to expedite scale among its customers for high-volume, low-cost televisions,” says Pearl TV.
“We are very enthusiastic about the promise of NEXTGEN TV for our customers and being able to help them with an easier, faster and more cost-effective process to introduce NEXTGEN TV-compatible products,” said Alfred Chan, vice president, TV Business Unit in the Smart Home Group at MediaTek. “Importantly, consumer electronics manufacturers can feel confident that they are meeting the highest standards around authenticity and security as our platform is certified compliant with the Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) NEXTGEN TV logo requirements.”
NEXTGEN TV’s US market rollout reached key milestone transitions with the launch in Dayton, and recent expansions into Champaign-Springfield-Decatur, Illinois, Birmingham and Albuquerque. Soon to follow later in December is New Orleans, and in January 2023 additional launches are planned in Boston and Miami, all culminating in a 5 per cent NEXTGEN TV market penetration increase by the end of January 2023. In addition, more than a dozen additional markets are in the planning stages to begin their transition to NEXTGEN TV services later in 2023.