Article: Charter doubtful about the future of ATSC 3.0

I'm not sure I understand why this is a problem. Why can't the MVPD's accept the streams (either directly via streaming or from tuners) much as they're doing now?

To be sure, the experience will likely be different for some of the new kinds of content but you don't have to lose access to conventional shows or re-runs. Maybe they'll have to figure out new ways of inserting advertising but there's motivation there.
 
RF is RF and video is video so if they are able to deliver local stations now, they will be able to deliver local stations afterwards.
Charter is likey concerned with loss of customers and loss of local advertising since 3.0 will deliver locally targeted ads that will hurt their bottom line
 
Converting an ATSC 3 signal, or more likely, part of that signal, into QAM will take some new equipment, no? And the number of subchannels may grow. And what will they do with a true UHD program?


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Charter is likey concerned with loss of customers and loss of local advertising since 3.0 will deliver locally targeted ads that will hurt their bottom line
Just because Next Gen TV supports something doesn't mean that it will be implemented. Other features will be regionally implemented (outside North America, audio will be MPEG-H rather than Dolby Digital). OTA is working with a market that has shunned cable and is perhaps more likely not to have their home entertainment system connected to the Internet.
 
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ATSC 3 wants an Internet connection. Wants, not requires. There will be incentives.


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Converting an ATSC 3 signal, or more likely, part of that signal, into QAM will take some new equipment, no?
If they receive the channels via a tuner, I'd guess they'll simply SDI the output to their QAM muxes. If they stream it, they could pass the stream through a streamer box and SDI the output to the QAM muxes. This can be done on a chip so I can't imagine it is very costly.
And the number of subchannels may grow.
I doubt that can happen until after DTV is formally over and done with.
And what will they do with a true UHD program?
I doubt that this will happen until after the DTV sunset either. A single UHD stream consumes most, if not all, of an RF channel. I'm not aware of any terrestrial provider who offers UHD on a QAM channel.

I think the bigger issue is that outside of Phoenix (and maybe Raliegh), there just doesn't outwardly appear to be much activity; a lot of the excitement they garnered at introduction has been lost. The continued absence of a consumer tuner is a bad sign.

My biggest fear is that they'll have to do away with DTV HD to facilitate this lighthousing element of the Next Gen TV conversion and people will just throw in the towel on OTA when their TVs and DVRs stop working.

I'd be happy to be wrong about this but I'm peeved that we haven't heard anything substantial about how it is going.
 
My biggest fear is that they'll have to do away with DTV HD to facilitate this lighthousing element of the Next Gen TV conversion and people will just throw in the towel on OTA when their TVs and DVRs stop working.
Now that would be hilarious. If nobody bought ATSC 3 TV's the whole technology would go down the dumper. I can see how they could finagle smart TV's to illicitly track you when you're watching via OTA but what about satellite and cable? Current hardware isn't going to be able to track you and provide feedback via the Internet (which is one of the main intents of ATSC 3 in order to provide targeted advertising) so it would seem providers will need to create and issue all new client end boxes with Internet capabilities in addition to everything else they're going to have to do to implement this farce.
 
Charter doesn't have any 4K.

It's not shocking they don't want ASTC3 to succeed - it essentially forces 4K on them en masse.
 
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It's not shocking they don't want ASTC3 to succeed - it essentially forces 4K on them en masse.
There's nothing about Next Gen TV that forces anything 4K. It supports it, but it seems unlikely that it will be commonly used because of the bandwidth it devours.

Several of us have been pretty vocal that we're less considerably interested in UHD than we are in the HDR and WCG components (using Hybrid Log-Gamma) being available in HD resolutions. Whether or not many of the current UHD TVs support that combination remains to be seen but I think that would be the big win.
 
I just think Charter is being a cry baby since they are loosing a lot of customers cord cutters.
Charter isn't losing the customers, they're simply not subscribing to the TV offering anymore.

Given the fare currently offered, TV is getting less and less valuable outside of event television (news, sports, live performances). Charter (or any other carrier) no longer has to buy what they can't make a profit on in the name of delivering what customers want because they can step back and let someone else stream it to their customers.
 
You mean we’re not going to get 24/7 UHD broadcasts of C-Span?
If you're trying to be funny, you should at least use programming that is commonly found on OTA TV.

What? No Rifleman in 4K WCG with Dolby Atmos? How will I ever imagine the bullets whizzing past our hero and the crimson blood staining his shirtsleeve?
 
There's nothing about Next Gen TV that forces anything 4K. It supports it, but it seems unlikely that it will be commonly used because of the bandwidth it devours.

Several of us have been pretty vocal that we're less considerably interested in UHD than we are in the HDR and WCG components (using Hybrid Log-Gamma) being available in HD resolutions. Whether or not many of the current UHD TVs support that combination remains to be seen but I think that would be the big win.

Same issue, though - Charter would need to replace hardware (on customer end only, probably) for HDR/HLG. It still makes them spend.
My point is that i don't think ASTC3 happens without a "killer app" - and 4k is likely the closest thing.
 
Same issue, though - Charter would need to replace hardware (on customer end only, probably) for HDR/HLG. It still makes them spend.
If I'm reading the hype correctly, HLG content works with equipment that can't handle its enhancements so that's probably not an issue. Obviously, if the cable operators want to take advantage of it, they'll have to make sure their STBs can negotiate with the TVs to enable it but I don't think they have to do anything beyond that.
My point is that i don't think ASTC3 happens without a "killer app" - and 4k is likely the closest thing.
I don't see anyone other than DIRECTV and DISH worrying about UHD until such time as there is content to worry about. At this point, there really isn't anything that warrants going there. You'll let us know when something other than event programming in UHD happens, no?

The current level of content can be handled by unicasting (one-to-one). If there was a lot of UHD from ESPN and the movie suites, then the carriers would need to seriously look at how they are going to multicast.