ATSC, The Broadcast Standards Association, will receive a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award recognizing its development of ATSC 3.0, the next-generation television standard built around an Internet Protocol-based architecture.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said the award recognizes ATSC’s “pioneering development” of next-generation broadcasting standards and the creation of what it described as the first fully IP-based broadcast standard to reach commercial scale.
ATSC 3.0 gives broadcasters the ability to deliver Ultra High-Definition video, High Dynamic Range, immersive audio, interactive applications and other advanced services through terrestrial TV signals.
“Through a multiyear, consensus-based engineering, drafting and balloting process led by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the standard has enabled new capabilities, including UHD, HDR, immersive audio and interactive services,” Emmy organizers said on Wednesday. “ATSC 3.0 is now commercially deployed across the United States and internationally, reaching millions of households and driving significant changes across the broadcast equipment, consumer electronics and regulatory landscape.”
The award is the fourth Emmy recognizing ATSC and its standards work, following previous honors in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
“This Emmy belongs to the entire ATSC community,” ATSC President Madeleine Noland said in a statement on Wednesday. “ATSC 3.0 is the result of extraordinary collaboration among hundreds of experts and organizations, past and present, who contributed their ideas, technical expertise, time and leadership over many years.”
Noland said the recognition reflects what the broadcast industry can accomplish through a shared technical development process.
“This recognition from NATAS celebrates not simply a standard, but what our members can accomplish when an industry comes together around a shared vision for the future of broadcasting,” she said.
The Emmy comes as the transition to ATSC 3.0 remains a work in progress: Broadcasters have deployed the standard in numerous U.S. markets and are pushing for a firmer transition to the standard known as NextGen TV, but there is still no mandatory nationwide deadline for shutting down ATSC 1.0 service.
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