Several years ago, the FCC declared a new over the air TV standard: ATSC 3.0, aka “Next Gen TV” for which ads have been on TV for a few years now.
But, instead of the FCC coordinating the changeover, as it did to ATSC 1.0 in 2009, the changeover was left to the “JCs”.
Surprisingly, seems the “JCs” can’t coordinate a trip to the head. The FCC will not let them turn off ATSC 1.0 until a significant number of people have ATSC 3.0 TVs. But the patent license fees on the new tuner are so steep, the new tuners are only included in high end TVs. LG was sued by a patent holder, who was not a member of the ATSC 3.0 patent consortium, and lost. LG paid the judgement against them, then deleted the 3.0 tuners from all their TVs.
Due to the lack of market penetration, the FCC has not allowed ATSC 1.0 transmission to be cut off. iirc, the cut over date was originally supposed to be several years ago, but has been put off, repeatedly. Now, the stations who have invested in 3.0 transmitters are pressing for 1.0 to be cut off two years from now.
Meanwhile, cell phone operators are casting lustful eyes at the TV broadcast spectrum. I remember AT&T, years ago, proposing all over the air TV be cut off, so it could have all the spectrum. That drumbeat has not gone away.
Came across this tidbit, about the competition between offering over the air TV via 5G cell technology, vs ATSC 3.0, vs ATSC 1.0, vs streaming.
Meanwhile, I paid $25 for the 43" rescue TV in my living room, and $12 for the 32" rescue TV in my back room. Let them fight it out. I don’t have a lot of capital tied up in anything.
Steve