The nation’s broadcasters are making a push for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to lock in a firm February, 2028 date for the transition to the NextGen TV standard, ATSC 3.0.
I take a look at their filing in my latest video.
The broadcaster proposal includes setting the February, 2028 date for the top 55 television markets to fully switch over, with smaller markets following by February 2030. Along with that date request, they’re asking the FCC to make a number of policy changes to accelerate the transition.
One ask is for the FCC to lift the simulcasting rules that exist under the current ATSC 3.0 rule. Right now, stations are required to offer “substantially similar” broadcasts in both the current ATSC 1.0 and newer ATSC 3.0 formats. Broadcasters want to move their higher value programming to ATSC 3.0 to push more viewers to upgrade their televisions or tuners.
Last month’s long awaited “Future of Television” report indicated significant adoption issues centered around ATSC 3.0 tuner availability. At the moment only higher end TV sets have the new tuners built in and standalone tuners are expensive. and lousy. Broadcasters are asking the FCC to mandate the inclusion of ATSC 3.0 tuners on all new televisions as soon as possible to get more of them out to consumers.
One hurdle to this request is an ongoing legal dispute over patents related to the ATSC 3.0 tuning technology. A company has already won a lawsuit against LG, requiring the manufacturer to pay excessive licensing fees on every television sold with an ATSC 3.0 tuner. The case is currently before an appeals court but will no doubt make a mandate difficult to put in place right now.
Another contentious issue is digital rights management (DRM) encryption that broadcasters are building into the new standard. Broadcasters acknowledge the concerns raised by consumers, but tell the FCC that their existing “encoding rules” allow unlimited recording and storage of TV broadcasts. They fail to mention that these rules only apply to simulcasts of ATSC 1.0 content, not dedicated ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. If simulcasting is phased out, broadcasters would have more control over how content is recorded and accessed. And on top of that there are significant compatibility issues that limit how consumers can access the broadcasts and record them.
Currently, the only tuners capable of decrypting these broadcasts rely on Google’s Android TV operating system and Google’s DRM technology. This means broadcasters, who argue they need regulatory relief to compete with Big Tech, are indirectly reliant on Google’s ecosystem to distribute their content. Additionally, consumers have expressed a strong preference for networked tuner solutions—such as gateway devices that connect to a home network—yet broadcasters have struggled to deliver on their promise to support them.
Cable providers are likely to push back against this transition timeline, due to the costs involved in upgrading their infrastructure to support ATSC 3.0’s DRM along with its new video and audio codecs. Broadcasters argue that setting firm deadlines will give cable companies enough time to prepare and budget but they make no offer to assist cable providers’ transition expenses.
Alongside this requested transition, broadcasters are also asking for policy changes that could impact local station ownership rules and streaming services like YouTube TV.
They asked the FCC to lift restrictions on station ownership, claiming they need the ability to scale up their businesses in order to compete for advertising revenue. Unlike digital platforms that can expand without regulatory barriers, broadcasters face limitations on how many TV and radio stations they can own, both nationally and within local markets.
Another significant request involves treating streaming services that carry local stations — such as YouTube TV and Hulu — the same as cable providers when it comes to retransmission negotiations. Currently, national networks negotiate these deals for streaming platforms on behalf of their locally owned affiliates, whereas cable companies must negotiate with each individual station. If the rule changes, it could drive up the cost of streaming services as local broadcasters gain leverage to negotiate their own carriage fees.
The broadcast industry’s current business model defies basic economic principles: they continually raise prices even as demand for their product declines, while simultaneously making it more difficult for cord-cutters to tune in over the air due to the industry’s insistence on broadcast DRM. This FCC chair has already indicated that there are better uses for TV spectrum, so I predict he will approve broadcasters’ request just to hasten their demise.