Broadcast television viewers in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina now have access to some of their local major network affiliates through the newest digital standard known as NextGen TV.
Dabl affiliate WWMB (Channel 21) is serving as the ATSC 3.0 “lighthouse” station for NextGen TV signals in the market, supporting its own main network feed along with those of WBTW (Channel 13, CBS) WPDE (Channel 15, ABC) and WHMC (Channel 23, PBS). The area’s Fox and NBC affiliates were not included in the initial launch, and it is not clear if they will be available on NextGen TV in the near future.
WWMB is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings and operated by WPDE owner Sinclair, Inc. through a shared services agreement. Sinclair announced the news of the NextGen TV launch in a press release on Wednesday. BitPath helped coordinate the development and deployment of NextGen TV signals in Myrtle Beach, Sinclair said.
Those with NextGen TV-capable television sets or set-top boxes will need to rescan their tuners in order to receive the new signal, which will provide a multiplex of all four television stations participating in NextGen TV there.
NextGen TV is available in more than 70 local television markets across the country. Sinclair is a core participant in Pearl TV, the commercial television consortium that is developing and promoting the NextGen TV standard in the United States.
