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Posted on 07/13/2026 5:46:21 AM PDT by Red Badger
In less than two years, the era of free, open over-the-air TV will come to an end and be replaced by a PPV-like experience.
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[SNIP]
It feels like a golden era of free consumer media choice. But this brilliant, high-definition view comes with a ticking clock. In the corridors of the FCC, local broadcasters are vigorously pushing a plan to permanently shut down our current broadcasting standard called Advanced Television Systems Committee 1.0 (ATSC 1.0). If media conglomerates get their way, February 2028 will mark the sudden end of free, open television as we know it, instantly transforming millions of perfectly functional smart TVs and local streaming tuners into a mountain of electronic waste -- unless, of course, you pay a monthly fee.
The culprit is the impending forced migration from our reliable, foundational television standard, ATSC 1.0, to a new format known as ATSC 3.0, or NextGen TV. On its surface, the television industry markets NextGen TV as a highly progressive technological leap. Advertisements promise dazzling native 4K video, deep cinematic theater sound, and interactive, customized digital layouts. What the glitzy marketing completely omits, however, is that this entire ecosystem is wrapped inside a Trojan horse called Digital Rights Management (DRM) encryption.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Fox News has been that sort of a waste, for decades.
I stopped watching them over that “BONG” they had (have?) every ten minutes that runs a “FOX NEWS ALERT!” text over their normally running show text, at the bottom of the screen. They always say something stupid or obvious, like “President 0bama laughs at a joke,” or “President Bush left the daily press conference.”
“BONG!”
Cable TV was supposed to end commercials but didn’t.
Fit more commercials in.
Have a question that will probably sound retarded, but I’m less tech-savvy than most, and would appreciate the knowledge. Here goes:
I have lots of DVD and Blu-Ray movies that I’ve accumulated over several years. If OTA TV goes away, I can still use my TV as just a player, right? I don’t need to pay for some sort of signal to enable playback? MTIA (Many Thanks in Advance).
This sucks. I cut the cord long ago and purchased over the air antennae for sports mainly. The picture quality is outstanding for watching golf and football. It is also nice to have something to watch when the wi-fi is down. Oh well. I ain’t paying for something again that I already get with my Hulu live tv streaming. If it wasn’t for sports I wouldn’t even have that.
That was cable TV’s promise as well. And the movie channels, and Youtube. As soon as a large number of folks start using digital services, those services become paid subscriptions if you want commercial free. Then once the public is majority on those services, the fees go up and the ads start.
EVERY TIME! Look at your new CAR!
Yep; whole article is based on a partial or mid-reading of the ATSC core requirements.
More concerning IMO is that 3.0 rollout has been slow; touting “coverage” based on even one station operating in a big metro area (not equivalence like same stations to same people)
So not that ABC will suddenly require a subscription to let the local weather person tell you it’s raining but they’ll drag feet, nobody will get tuners because there are few or no stations, and companies + FCC will let the whole thing and existing ATSC 1 die.
… even so not sure that’s terrible … will the world suffer if up and coming MSM lying faces don’t get a platform? Emergency announcements don’t require the production of sitcoms and reality drama, and “news” is just bias.
Mostly drug commercials, but at least the person portraying the doctor is always a black female.
“instantly transforming millions of perfectly functional smart TVs and local streaming tuners into a mountain of electronic waste — unless, of course, you pay a monthly fee.”
Since I would refuse to pay, TBH they’d be doing me a favor.
I spend too much time in front of the idiot tube anyway.
other than live college football, I have not watched Network TV since the 20th century. They have nothing on that interests me.
4 months per year I get YouTube TV so I can watch college football. I don’t have to sign a contract and can just pay monthly. As soon as college football season is over, I drop it. There is so much content you can watch for free on YouTube and to a lesser extent, Rumble. Plus if you have a Roku like I do, there are tons more free channels. Then there are always Torrents so long as you have a VPN.
I have no subscription service at all for 8 months out of every year and I don’t miss it.
Assuming you have a digital TV....which, they're all digital nowadays.....the answer is yes. Get a DVD player if you don't have one. They're fairly cheap and can plug into a USB port. Put one of your movies in and copy it digitally onto your computer. Get a thumb drive and transfer it from your computer to your thumb drive. Now plug your thumb drive into the USB port on your TV. Watch your movies on TV.
” can’t even watch Wheel of Fortune without watching two lesbian contestants kissing.”
Ever watch The Price Is Right?
There is absolutely NO WAY the selection of the contestants is that randomly “diverse”.
You can almost set your watch by who will be called to play next.
There is always at least one or two homosexuals picked every show.
And they certainly make sure a certain ethnicity gets picked at least as many times as Whites.
NO WAY all that is random.
The simple fact of the issue is that broadcast TV is just obsolete.
Just as broadcast TV replaced broadcast radio, streaming has replaced broad cast over the air TV
Satellite internet will eventually replace the current fiber optic net that replaced the copper coax cables.
Hand held computers masquerading as mobile phones are the principle instruments of the change
Fox recently agreed to acquire Roku. That will give them direct to tv sets without requiring cable company delivery. It gets them onto OEM products without signups.
Many families will find this a blessing. Sorry kids, no TV.
I got my 10 year old Sony Bravia, streaming videos from my desktop PC. dlna is alive and well.
I don’t watch tv anymore, I find a good book much more entertaining.
Between cable and streaming I’ve been paying for “free broadcast” since 1985. Whatever.
Really what the new standard does is put Neilson out of business. By allowing the networks to leverage the technology to count viewers themselves instead of using Neilson’s best guess. Which they’ve been technically able to do since the rise of cable in the 80s, but the cable companies were specifically forbidden by Congress from gathering that info. Of course now with the networks all on streaming they can circumvent that stupidity and gather the info themselves and actually know how many viewers their shows have, and what demos, and do a better job of selling them to advertisers. Yeah OK that last part ain’t so great. But the first 2 are.
That’s what I was wondering. What we would do in a grid-down situation. I have an antenna attached to my 4K TV. Mostly use it for the local weather but still get all the major stations and their .1-.4 stations. I’d hate to see it go, I still like the oldschool stuff.
What is broadcast tv, is it different from having cable?
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