A second group of stations has begun broadcasting NextGen TV signals in San Antonio, Texas.

KSAT, owned by Graham Media Group, has started broadcasting using ATSC 3.0 technology. It is broadcasting its own ABC-affiliated station’s content as well as programming from KLRN, KENS, KVDA and KWEX.

Last June, KMYS started broadcasting a NextGen signal, carrying its own programming, plus channels for WOAI, KABB, and KCWX.

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“NextGen TV is in high demand in San Antonio, a top media market where several major networks — ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC, PBS, Telemundo and Univision — are offering this new service to their viewers,” Ashley Parker, general manager of KSAT, said. “Local broadcasters are dedicated to growing this free service in the San Antonio area and providing valuable local news, sports and entertainment. NextGen TV’s emergency alert and dual language capabilities are essential to residents and we’re proud that we can give them even more options now.”

NextGen TV promises a bigger picture and improved sound and voice quality. Viewers can also find internet content and get mobile reception and expanded local news.

The ATSC 3.0 format can also handle datacasting, a business that could generate $10 billion in incremental revenues for stations.

NextGen tuners are built into some TVs made by Sony, LG Electronics and Samsung. LTC later this month plans to deliver NextGen TV-enabled sets costing as little as $479.

Antenna viewers can rescan their TV sets to ensure full service. Cable and satellite subscribers do not need to take any action.

NextGen TV is available in 75 TV markets and reaches about 75% of U.S. households.

As the new year gets underway, it is time to start thinking about Fiesta in San Antonio. The event, taking place April 18-28, dates back to the late 1800s when heroes from the Alamo and Battle of San Jacinto were celebrated with what was known as the Battle of Flowers. It was a parade, with tossed flowers as the centerpiece. 

These days, there are parades down Broadway and past the Alamo, and a boat parade at the River Walk. There is food, drink and music, and merriment all over the city. 

KSAT is the official Fiesta station, but all the news players in San Antonio cover the gala. “It’s a huge city-wide event,” Ashley Parker, KSAT VP and general manager, said. “The whole town gets behind it.”

Graham Media Group owns ABC affiliate KSAT. Tegna has CBS station KENS. Sinclair owns NBC outlet WOAI and Fox station KABB, and manages Deerfield Media’s CW affiliate KMYS. NBCUniversal has Telemundo station KVDA and Univision holds KWEX. 

KLRN is the public broadcaster in San Antonio, and Spectrum is the dominant pay TV operator. 

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San Antonio is located in South Central Texas, around 70 miles southwest of Austin. Parker has 20 years at KSAT and became general manager in 2022. She spoke of the market’s considerable growth over the years, including a shift from Nielsen DMA No. 36 to No. 31 in the past decade. 

Stations are hustling to connect with the new arrivals. KSAT launched “Know My Neighborhood” last year, hearing directly from hyperlocal residents about hyperlocal issues. “We go into a neighborhood in our market and talk to the community and find out the good, the bad, the indifferent,” Parker said. “We help them tackle the issues that are occurring right in their neighborhood. 

KENS, for its part, works hard to mix some positive news into the daily content mix. “Viewers will tell you that KENS certainly keeps the community informed,” Tom Cury, president and general manager, said. “But we make a concerted effort to connect with the greater good of our community and lean into the positive stories.”

KENS 5 boasts notable anchor seniority. Early-evening anchor Deborah Knapp arrived way back in 1987, chief meteorologist Bill Taylor in 1996 and morning anchor Barry Davis in 2003. 

KSAT and KENS are local news powers, with KSAT the leader. KWEX is the primary Spanish-language station. In November, KSAT took the 6-7 a.m. household impressions battle, according to Nielsen, with WOAI in second, just ahead of KENS. KABB was tops in adults 25-54 impressions in that a.m. slot. KSAT won at 5 and 6 p.m., with KENS the runner-up at 5 and KWEX the demo runner-up at 6. 

In late news, KSAT averaged 45,300 household impressions, ahead of KENS’ 32,700, KWEX’s 21,800, KABB’s 20,400, WOAI’s 16,600 and KVDA’s 3,800. In the 25-54 late news impressions race, KWEX scored 15,600, KSAT 11,200, KENS 8,600, KABB 8,400, WOAI 6,400 and KVDA 1,200. 

KSAT connects with relatable content and personnel. “We’re real and we’re authentic,” Parker said. “We live with you. Our kids go to school with your kids.”

Las Noticias Locales

Nearly 66% of San Antonio residents claimed Hispanic origin in 2022, according to Census.gov. KWEX, known as Univision San Antonio, and KVDA, known as Telemundo 60 San Antonio, offer lively local content lineups. KWEX launched the weekly Contacto Sports program on Saturdays last year, and has a daily digital newscast at 4 p.m. “Our plans are to continue implementing a strategic expansion of our digital news offerings for today’s news consumers,” said Chris Morris, KWEX regional president and general manager. 

KVDA is the Spanish-language station of the Dallas Cowboys, with three preseason games in 2023. The station airs 14½ hours of local news weekly. “KVDA is present whenever and wherever our viewers need us,” said Patrica Buchanan, president and general manager. “We go from covering breaking news to providing the most up-to-date weather to the Hispanic community we serve.” 

Every station is hustling to reach users on the move. OTT offering KSAT Plus has news on demand, weather radar and high school sports, and the KSAT12 YouTube page had 334,000 subscribers at deadline. KENS 5 Plus has “bite-size chunks” of local content, said Cury, and regular weather updates. KVDA reaches beyond San Antonio with segments for FAST channel Telemundo Texas. 

Wemby Watch

San Antonio has a strong military presence, including Joint Base San Antonio. Medical is a major employer, and technology is growing. Multiple general managers likened the market to a big city with a small-town feel. 

The economy is crawling back from the COVID-19 era. “We all took a gut punch, but we’re coming back,” Parker said. 

It is a hot summer in San Antonio, but not quite as hot as other areas. “San Antonio is typically humid, but not humid like the Southeast,” Cury said. “It gets cold, but it doesn’t get cold like the northeast.”

One high-profile new arrival in San Antonio is Victor Wembanyama of France. Standing 7’ 4”, the basketball superstar is a Spurs rookie who turns 20 on January 4. He’s averaging nearly 19 points a game, but the Spurs are a miserable 5-27. 

KENS has 11 Spurs games this season. Despite their grim record, they are an attraction in San Antonio. “The Mavericks are in Dallas and the Rockets are in Houston,” Cury said. “New Orleans has the Pelicans, but further west, it’s all Spurs.”

The Spurs won’t be a smash this year, despite the presence of rookie star Victor Wembyana, but Fiesta surely will, and so will Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in late October. “What I like the most [about San Antonio] is its sense of culture and rich history,” Buchanan said. “Fiesta is an incredible example of this, as you see many events, parades and concerts that three million San Antonioans and tourists enjoy, and then you learn of its rich history.” 

With the cable industry in probably its greatest period of change since the invention of hybrid fiber coax, small and midsized cable operators are set to converge on San Antonio, Texas, next week (Feb. 12-13) for the National Cable Television Cooperative’s annual Winter Educational Conference. Themed “Break the Rules,” the conference offers networking opportunities as attendees engage with peers and experts in the technology, legislative and business fields to share ideas and best practices. NCTC president Rich Fickle spoke with Multichannel News about the conference and some of the topics that are top of mind for small and midsized cable operators across the country. Here are highlights.

MCN: What do you see as the biggest issues facing small and medium-sized operators today, and how are you addressing them at this conference?
Rich Fickle: On the video front, our focus based on members’ input is to help them get to a video platform that is low cost, but has very competitive features. One of the main themes that you will see at the show is we’re encouraging members to think about going app-based. In other words, you don’t have to have a set-top, you can download an app onto Roku or an Android set top or Apple TV and it will have the cable operator’s lineup. That blends the content choices in with OTT offerings for the consumer.

The driver of that is twofold: One is lowering the cost structure, because programming costs are taking most of the money out of the video business; and secondly, in an IP world with consumer devices like that, you can get a lot more innovation than you can out of the traditional MPEG2 set-top-supplier world.

MCN: How is that going to lower costs? Is it just equipment — set-tops and the like — or is this going to mean lower costs for programming, too?
RF: I wish it would lower programming costs, but definitely the cost of set-tops. In our world, members have been paying $300 to $400 per home or more just for set-tops and in this environment you could choose to let the consumer provide the set-top or you could provide one that is a lot less, like $70 per TV. This type of transmission, using IP, is a lot more bandwidth-efficient, so it is going to save, over the long term, bandwidth. If you want to have a more robust on-demand offering, if you want to have a better mobile solution, these things are part of the whole offering. You don’t have to stand up a lot of new infrastructure to get that done. It’s just a lot easier to bring new features in without huge cost.

MCN: Do you think the time is ripe for this because broadband has taken such a front-and-center role, and cable appears to be the quality and capacity leader?
RF: If you’re going to put investments into your business, the best place to put it is in making sure your broadband network is robust and high capacity and things like helping customers with their home network and ensuring that the service quality is super high with wireless routers and monitoring capabilities. It’s much better to put your money in those things rather than legacy video set-tops or legacy video headend equipment.

MCN: What other things are you seeing that look promising on the tech front for smaller cable operators?
RF: The home networking side is looking pretty exciting because there are now a dozen new companies entering that space. The interesting part is the software control systems that monitor what’s happening in the house and make it easy to ensure the quality is really good.

[In] the network itself, there are a lot of interesting things going on with deep fiber, the idea of wireless to the home from the last couple of hundred feet — we have a few members testing that out already. So instead of running a cable drop, you’re setting up a wireless connection into that home and in some cases a business.

MCN: Tell me what else is in store for conference attendees?
RF: We’ve got some great speakers. Jonathan Taplin, who wrote a book [Move Fast and Break Things] about breaking the rules. He’s kind of a renegade in the media world; he should be a provocative opening speaker. We also have the editor-in-chief [Nicholas Thompson] from Wired magazine. The other item that we are focusing on in this show is more sales and marketing. We’ve got a couple of really good sessions and a dynamic speaker to talk about, in this world of more competition, how do you change your approach to sales and marketing. Plus, we’re going to have fun. A big part of the reason people come is they want to share ideas and it’s where they learn what’s working and what’s not working.

NCTC’s WEC at a Glance

Where: Marriott Rivercenter, San Antonio, Texas When: Feb. 12-13 Key Speakers: Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and author of Move Fast and Break Things; Wired magazine editor-in-chief Nicholas Thompson; Meridith Elliott Powell, author and business strategist; Matt Polka, ACA president; Gerard Kunkel, founder/managing partner, Next Media Partners.