ATSC 3.0 Spurs Consumer Interest in Smart TV

[HDTV1080P]

QUOTE


"Interest in buying an internet-connected smart TV goes up when consumers learn about the capabilities of the next-generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard, according to the findings of a national survey conducted by market research firm SmithGeiger."

Read more at https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...q6TSygoLqoT.99

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I find that supposed survey quite hard to believe. I can see some tech nerds excited by ATSC 3.0 and it does have some interesting features, but I don't think it's stuff that gets the mass market excited enough to buy a new TV because of it. This is wishful thinking.

Most people don't want to interact with their TV's (especially those that still watch TV on a TV). They just want to sit and watch. Second screen applications got a lot of publicity for a while and in the end, no one cared and you don't hear much about them anymore, with the possible exception of people tweeting while they watch a show.

And if they don't get the user-interface right with ATSC 3.0, consumers won't use it.

I bet there were surveys that said everyone wanted 3D as well.

[HDTV1080P]

Also one of the reasons why the standard ATSC system caught on in the United States, is because it was forced upon the consumer by the FCC, since the FCC wanted to auction off physical TV spectrum and the advantage of ATSC is that it uses digital compression that increases the virtual bandwidth to squeeze more channels into a limited space. So because of the FCC mandate all TV stations in the United States that were full power were forced to stop broadcasting in analog NTSC and switch to ATSC.


Unless the FCC decides to auction off more physical TV bandwidth and mandate ATSC 3.0 in the United States, then ATSC 3.0 might become a niche market. ATSC 3.0 increases the virtual bandwidth by using better video codec to squeeze even more channels into a 6Mhz spectrum.


I am all for ATSC 3.0 and ATSC since they are much better quality video and audio compared to NTSC. However slowly in the United States we keep losing the physical TV bandwidth as the FCC auctions it off. One day over the air broadcast TV might not exist if its completely auctioned off.