ATSC 3.0, known by its public name as "NextGen TV," promised to modernize over-the-air television broadcasts with 4K support and on-demand content. Unfortunately, the rollout is not going all that well.

ATSC 3.0 has been in development for years, with the goal of bringing 4K broadcasts to over-the-air (antenna) TV at up to 120 FPS, HDR, improved audio, and improved support for mobile devices. The NextGen TV rollout has started to ramp up over the past two years or so, with many TVs starting to ship with ATSC 3.0 support, and the reveal of some DVR tuner boxes that could receive ATSC 3.0 signals. Considering TV services are continuing to become more expensive, the appeal of free OTA 4K broadcasts from major networks might be stronger than ever.

However, excitement around the new technology has quickly dried up, as many TV stations have added content protection to its ATSC 3.0 broadcasts. NextGen TV does give stations the ability to add DRM to their broadcasts, but most TVs and external tuners do not support encryption. That's leaving many people who already bought equipment for NextGen TV without the ability to watch their local stations in the highest available quality.

The DRM rollout has also delayed some ATSC 3.0 hardware, as device makers try to figure out a solution for encrypted broadcasts. Tablo announced an OTA DVR in January 2022 with four tuners, all of which supported both ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0, with an estimated shipping date of spring 2022. That DVR is now indefinitely delayed, because Tablo is still working on DRM support, and the decryption keys supposedly can't be added later in a software update. Silicon Dust is also still working on a DRM solution for its products.

It's frustrating to see the first significant upgrade to OTA TV in decades be bogged down with DRM implementations, especially when the DRM isn't likely to be effective in the long term. HDCP on HDMI and DisplayPort connections is trivial to work around, and other similar attempts at protecting video and audio usually don't last long.

Source: Cord Cutters News, Tablo, Zats Not Funny