NAB 2017: NAB Frames New PILOT Challenge

The National Association of Broadcasters said Sunday that it has a second PILOT Innovation Challenge.

That came at the 2017 NAB Show in Las Vegas, where a call for entries was announced to answer the question: “What is an unconventional way broadcasters and other local media could serve communities?”

A new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard could help power that unconventional approach, given that it allows for targeted broadcasts--sort of narrowcast broadcasting--as well as interactivity.

The PILOT project challenge is funded by a $200,000 grant from the James L. Knight Foundation as part of the PILOT project to create new opportunities with new tech.

The winner will be announced at the NAB Futures conference April 22-27, also in Las Vegas.

Last year's inaugural challenge question was “How can local television and radio broadcasters engage their communities with next generation content on any device, whether big, small or moving?”

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.