#159: Next-Gen TV

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 45 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2017

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are you a “cord-cutter?” Did your ditch your cable bundle for Netflix? Or, maybe you remembered that you can still get over-the-air television for free with a cheap antennae? Watching NFL games in high-def for free is pretty sweet, but wouldn’t it be even sweeter if the games were in 4K or Ultra HD? The technology might be right around the corner for households, as broadcasters have invented a new standard, ATSC 3.0 — a thoroughly unsexy acronym better known as “Next-Gen TV” — that can bring 4K to your over-the-air signal. Will the FCC approve the new standard? How will this affect competition in the 4K marketplace? What else can consumers expect from the new standard? Evan is joined by two experts from the National Association of Broadcasters: Allison Neplokh, Vice President of Spectrum Policy, and Patrick McFadden, Associate General Counsel.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tech Policy podcast. I'm Evan Swartzrober. On today's show, The Future of Television, Next Generation TV.
0:12.5	Joining me to discuss this are two folks from the National Association of Broadcasters,
0:16.9	Alison Netblock, Vice President of Spectrum Policy, and Patrick McFadden, Associate General Counsel.
0:22.1	Gentlemen and lady, thank you for joining.
0:24.0	Thank you for having us.
0:25.1	So consumers might not be aware of what NextGen TV is.
0:28.7	I mean, we had the switch from standard definition to high definition way back in 2004.
0:35.1	And since then, we've had some improvements.
0:39.1	Consumers might have heard of things like 4K or Ultra HD. Maybe they've perused some of Netflix offerings, but otherwise, if they don't
0:46.5	have a 4K television, they might not know what this is. So just so listeners can get up to speed,
0:50.9	what do we mean when we say next gen TV?
1:00.2	Sure. So I'll start off on that and I should tell your listeners that I am the lawyer and Allison is the engineer, which means she's the smart one on the podcast. So I'll go as far as I can
1:05.8	until I start to come off of the rails technically. Next Generation TV is a broadcast transmission standard.
1:12.6	As you mentioned, the current DTV standard was approved by the FCC in 1996.
1:18.6	Prior to that, the old analog standard was approved in 1941, and then color came along in 1953.
1:26.6	Because of the way we are regulated as television stations, we need the FCC's permission
1:34.4	to adopt a new transmission standard.
1:37.5	So the current standard, which was pretty advanced in 1996 when it was adopted, a lot has
1:42.8	happened in the video marketplace since 1996,
1:45.8	and it's time for us to update that standard. And now, even with the current standard,
1:50.0	you were able to make the switch from standard deaf to high-deaf, or did that take further action,
1:54.6	too? That was actually part of the adoption of the new standard. The current DTV standard, allowed us to start transmitting in high definition.
	...

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