Pearl TV, the consortium of U.S. broadcast companies leading the nation’s transition to NEXTGEN TV, and its network partners have announced its presence at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, on Jan. 9-12,

Since the NEXTGEN TV rollout back in 2020, broadcasters have driven nearly 18% year-over-year growth in U.S. household access and spiking 22% in 2023 boosted by the launch of six top 20 markets. As the rollout and delivery of new features continues, its nationwide trajectory of reaching 75% of American viewers in January 2024 underscores NEXTGEN TV’s appeal in today’s home entertainment landscape.

The broadcast organization boasts that through a combination of broadcaster collaboration, technical expertise and visionary investment enabled NEXTGEN TV to reach 12 new markets in 2023 and deliver 83 free channels to viewers. Top 20 media markets launched include New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Miami.

“2023 was a key year for major markets in their NEXTGEN TV transition, as these six metros represent significant opportunities for viewers to enjoy the benefits of NEXTGEN TV while also enabling broadcast innovation to flourish and preserve the role of local news and entertainment in American homes,” states Anne Schelle, Managing Director of Pearl TV. “As 2024 approaches, it’s all about the consumer and more—more interactive features, more accessory options at retail, more broadcaster applications enabled by the RUN3TV platform, and more new markets and second sticks. CES is the perfect place to showcase what’s new and in store for consumers who are excited to be on the NEXTGEN TV wave.”

NEXTGEN TV Demonstrates Latest OTA Technologies

As part of its CES activities, multiple NEXTGEN TV features and advantages will be showcased within the Advanced Television Systems Committee booth, #19744 in the Central Hall. In addition to standalone upgrade accessory receivers, new integration options for consumer electronics manufacturers will be shown, including a new platform offered by Sony Semiconductor, Alticast, and Amlogic, a global leader in system-on-chip platforms for the smart TV market.

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Visitors will be able to experience:

• Over-the-Air Sports: Understanding the overarching popularity of live sports viewing, broadcasters throughout the country are expanding the range of free, over-the-air sports matchups.
• More Accessory Devices at Retail: While millions of NEXTGEN TV sets will be sold in the coming year, a new crop of NEXTGEN TV upgrade accessory receivers that are both certified to carry the NEXTGEN TV logo and also verified for content security are now available to consumers—with more options on the horizon in 2024.  A wide variety of affordable devices enable easy upgrades of existing TV sets, according to the industry group.
• Better Picture, Better Sound: In addition to an immersive audio demonstration, the group will showcase picture quality delivered by HDR as a convenient way to add color depth and brightness to broadcast images.
• Broadcast Internet Protocol (IP): Another benefit is the availability of more viewing options through IP connections that enables broadcasters to add services that aren’t able to transition due to spectrum constraints.

“Amlogic has joined forces with Sony and Alticast to offer a high-performance reference design solution to enable faster time-to-market for ATSC 1.0/3.0 smart TVs,” comments James Xie, senior vice president of corporate business strategy, Amlogic. “This turnkey solution is integrated with Sony Semiconductor’s market leading tuner/demodulator chips, as well as Alticast’s ATSC 1.0/3.0 software stack that has been validated through industry conformance testing. This collaboration ensures a seamless and high-performance foundation for next-generation smart TVs.”

A feature built into select TV models manufactured by Hisense, LG, Samsung and Sony, NEXTGEN TV is widely available to consumers at retail across more than 100 models.

“The Chicago market—a top three media market in the U.S.—will be one of the first NEXTGEN TV launches in 2024, bringing the free service to approximately 3.6 million television households according to industry rankings, and just in time for Super Bowl LVIII, especially as live linear television has never been stronger in sports,” adds Schelle. “Unique in 2023 was the rise of second sticks in markets that have previously launched, like New York, Minneapolis, and Miami, underscoring the demand for NEXTGEN TV from viewers, and embrace by broadcasters. These second sticks enable more stations in those markets to deliver NEXTGEN TV services and we’ll continue to see this in 2024, when San Antonio and others launch.”

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