A group backing a national transition from the current digital broadcast standard to NextGen TV released an announcement on Monday claiming “major progress” toward making the technology more affordable for everyday Americans to access.
But the announcement released by e-mail was critically low on specific plans that Pearl TV and other NextGen TV stakeholders have made over the past few months to ensure Americans won’t have to spend significant sums of money to purchase new smart TVs or buy converter boxes for the privilege of maintaining access to free broadcast TV should the NextGen TV transition occur within the next few years.
The announcement comes the same week as NAB Show New York, an annual trade show where the topic of NextGen TV is certain to be discussed. Pearl TV and other stakeholders are pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve a hard transition away from the current broadcast standard, called ATSC 1.0, in favor of NextGen TV by 2030. The new technology uses a mixture of broadcast signals and broadband feeds to deliver enhanced features like improved video signals, targeted advertising and hyperlocal messaging.
“A successful transition to NextGen TV requires more than advanced broadcast technology. It requires affordable products that enable all consumers to continue enjoying free over-the-air television,” Anne Schelle, the Managing Director of Pearl TV, said in a statement on Monday.
Over the past year, Pearl TV has been promoting a new program that incentivizes hardware makers to produce low-cost converter boxes with an expected retail price of around $60. Those low-cost converter boxes would include basic features like watching live broadcast and broadband TV channels, without advanced features like recording shows or watching live content across other devices.
The program is meant to ensure Americans who currently watched local broadcast stations won’t have to purchase a new TV if the industry is successful in convincing the FCC to transition away from the current broadcast standard by 2030. But few smart TVs currently have NextGen TV tuners in them, and no hardware maker has shipped a $60 converter box, despite assertions from Pearl TV and other NextGen TV backers that they are coming.
Indeed, the announcement on Monday — which appeared time to capitalize on interest in NAB Show New York — offered no firm details on when those boxes were coming, but did make more promises without any guarantees that Pearl TV will be able to deliver on them.
The organization has worked with patent holders to ensure hardware makers have rights to their technology in a way that will ensure basic converter boxes are price-attractive. Pearl TV said “discussions are also continuing with additional intellectual property licensors and component manufacturers,” identifying only Dolby and Technicolor as stakeholders who were involved in the talks.
“This is what industry collaboration looks like — patent owners, technology licensors, testing and security providers, and manufacturers are all contributing to a shared goal of making affordable,” Schelle said.
The organization also said it was “working with several manufacturers developing low-cost ATSC 3.0 converter boxes, with new products expected to be unveiled in early 2027,” but didn’t say which hardware makers have been approached or who had committed their interest in making the devices.
It is also unclear if Pearl TV will be able to keep its earlier promise that the converter boxes will retail for $60. That announcement was made before the artificial intelligence craze led to a significant shortage of computer memory and microprocessors that have resulted in higher prices for consumer electronics — Roku, Apple and Google have all raised the prices of their streaming TV devices, and experts believe it is a matter of time before smart TVs are also affected by the trend.
NextGen TV converter boxes and tuners are available on the market today, but they tend to command higher prices compared to streaming devices made by Roku and Amazon. None of the popular devices, like SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun tuner and BitRouter’s ZapperBox M1, offer the full slate of features promised by the technology.
SiliconDust is currently working through various issues with getting certification for its HDHomeRun tuner to receive encrypted channels, which means broadcast TV viewers with those tuners are largely forced to watch major network programming via the old broadcast standard. ZapperBox users have access to encrypted NextGen TV channels, but those devices lack interactive features like those offered by Roxi, which delivers on-demand music videos over NextGen TV.
