President’s Memo: Putting Technology to Work

Posted on September 24, 2025 in ATSC News

As the Fall season begins and next-gen broadcasting stakeholders prepare for a busy fourth quarter, the IBC2025 trade show offered timely insights into what’s shaping our industry—and reinforced ATSC’s vital role in what comes next.

In Amsterdam, two themes stood out: cloudification and AI are reshaping media workflows, and enhanced Financial Operations (abbreviated as “FinOps”) is now essential. A recurring topic across sessions and side meetings was how broadcasters can best leverage both Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) – Over-the-Air (OTA) and Over-the-Top (OTT). With ATSC 3.0, our members have a powerful OTA path that complements the cloud-native OTT ecosystem. This dual-delivery model can unlock new revenue—especially when combined with local ad insertion, made more dynamic through AI. A key takeaway: AI will flood the market with new content, and content discovery and personalization will be paramount to enable consumers to separate winners from noise.

Our panel session on “ATSC 3.0’s Role in Europe’s Media Future – Reimagining Broadcast Economics – Mobiles to Automobiles” with Mark Aitken (Sinclair), Parag Naik (Tejas Networks), and Ana Eliza Faria e Silva (Globo) sparked meaningful discussion. The ATSC 3.0 Bootstrap—designed to coexist with other systems—was highlighted as a clear enabler for multi-standard environments. Ana Eliza underscored a critical truth: no single country can achieve Direct-to-Mobile (D2M) alone. The future is multinational, and the business model will determine the pace.

My talk at the Rohde & Schwarz booth on non-TV services in ATSC 3.0 drew strong interest. Among the highlighted use cases was the early successes of MBC, a Korean broadcaster offering e-GPS datacasting services, which are transmitted over ATSC 3.0 alongside its linear UHD TV programming. Attendance exceeded expectations—proof that datacasting and public service use cases are gaining traction.

Elsewhere, SMPTE’s work on AI Agent ID Metadata is something we’ll monitor closely. A standardized way to track AI-generated content components will soon be essential—especially as regulatory and ethical frameworks emerge.

Several meetings with members were held to discuss topics such as HDR implementation, set-top box strategies, conformance tool development, and next-generation device innovation. These conversations underscore the importance of ongoing collaboration across the global technology ecosystem, which remains central to our mission.

IBC2025 gave us the opportunity to share that ATSC 3.0 continues to be seen as a flexible, forward-looking platform—not just for TV, but for all types of data services. Thank you to all members who made the trip and helped showcase what our community can achieve.

New on the ATSC Website
We’ve added links to key CTA standards on our Resources page to help support better understanding and application of TV antenna performance:

• Indoor TV Receiving Antennas Performance Standard – ANSI/CTA-2032-C
• Color Codes for Outdoor TV Receiving Antennas – ANSI/CTA-2028-C

Both of these standards are based on the foundational TV Receiving Antenna Performance Presentation Measurement – ANSI/CTA-774-E.

And don’t miss this issue’s Standards Column, where we provide updates on current ballots, new work items, and progress across ATSC 3.0 technical groups.

Thank you to all our members and sponsors whose continued support fuels our progress—now let’s keep driving innovation forward.

Madeleine Noland

President, ATSC

Posted in ATSC News