Stations in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Wednesday began broadcasting using the new NextGen TV technology.
Greensboro is the 36th market using ATSC 3.0 or NexGen TV signals. About 34% of TV households are expected to be able to get NextGen TV signals by the end of the year and that should climb to 85% by next summer.
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NextGen TV uses the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard and provides better picture and sound quality, access to internet-based content and other digital services.
Stations participating in the NextGen TV launch are WXLV-TV and WMYV-TV owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, WGHP-TV owned by Nexstar Media and WXII-TV owned by Hearst.
The switchover required coordination so that people with older sets will continue to get programming. In Greensboro, WMYV is carrying the programming from all four stations on its new ATSC 3.0 transmission. WMYV’s main signal and its digital subchannels are being broadcast by the other stations using the current ATSC 1.0 standard. The other stations will start broadcasting using ATSC 3.0 as the number of receivers in the market increases.
The NextGen TV launch in Greensboro was coordinated by BitPath, which is developing new wireless services carried by the ATSC 3.0 signals. ■
