This makes no sense for the ordinary person. Just those making TV receivers or converters and those groups pushing for it. Another scheme for force people to spend money, on things that aren't needed the way economic conditions are now and only appears to get worse.
@wefr I think it's to further maintain and strengthen a digital hold on each individual of a society. With OTA theres no way of determining what your watching, at what times, how often, for how long, etc, and no way to document it. This change over will fix this so to allow your watching habits to be documented.
@richpowers Still doesn't make sense. Because ATCS 3.0 can be used without a internet connection to watch most things. I think it's just the hyper-local stuff you have to have a connection for. Unless they've changed things since I was last following regularly.
No.. that internet is needed, it's an intrical part of the A.3 or whatever system - that's the impression I get, but let's look at what all the fuss is about in three short paragraphs...
Copied and pasted directly from:
FCCs Public Notice DA 25-314 Released April 7, 2025 in reference to MB Docket No. 16-142 https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-314A1.pdf
8. Also, the Commission has received thousands of consumer comments objecting to broadcasters employing the use of Digital Rights Management encryption on their ATSC 3.0 signals
because the complaints state that such action has resulted in the consumer’s inability to receive programming despite having purchased an ATSC 3.0 enabled device.23 What steps can or should the industry and/or the Commission take to ensure broadcasters are able to protect their content and signal, while also ensuring viewers are able to continue to view a station’s free over-the-air signal in ATSC 3.0 just as they do today?
9. Further, the Commission previously declined to adopt rules to allow broadcasters to use vacant channels as temporary transition channels to deploy ATSC 3.0 service.24 Have marketplace conditions changed with respect to the use of vacant channels in this regard and, if so, could such changes make it beneficial to allow the use of vacant channels to transition without imposing excessive costs on other stakeholders?
10. In addition, the Commission has said that it expects the “fundamental use” of television broadcast spectrum to continue to be the provision of free, over-the-air television service, but has not yet addressed the question of how much “spectral capacity” a Next Gen TV station must ultimately devote to free, over-the-air television service.25 Should the Commission define this expectation in the context of Next Gen TV and if so how should it be defined? We seek comment on these additional matters and any other issues that parties believe should be considered in this proceeding.
You don't see me filing comments, I'm not much of and activist. I'm just saying these years of my getting 30 to 40 channels, good channels, good selection, free over the air channels is going to diminish rapidly when this takes effect.
The internet is needed for the system to communicate back and forth with all the individual tv receivers to determine what content each unit is eligible to receive, be it subscription or free, and they determine what's free.
But to be honest, I was happy when it was analog with three channels.. and a few more on UHF. The picture sometimes got snowy, but it didn't matter, the signal came through.
So I guess I'm spoiled now, but still I'll hate to see it go away as Pay OTA TV comes into the scene.
A pilot buddy asked me if I knew why he was a pilot. He said it's because the FAA says he is. I am afraid us and big licensed stations broadcasting TV, radio or ham is the same.
Do I need internet access?
No. Even though ATSC 3.0 OTA broadcasts are designed to work hand-in-hand with content delivered over the internet, you do not need an internet connection. Using just your antenna and an ATSC 3.0 tuner, you’ll be able to watch every local station that is broadcasting in the new standard. But many of the more interesting features of ATSC 3.0, like customized ads, on-demand content, interactivity, and premium content, will require an internet connection.
Despite sounding like a standard that is locked-in, ATSC 3.0 is actually still undergoing active development. This means that new features could be added at any time. Should that happen, your ATSC 3.0 tuner will need to receive a software update, and that will likely require an internet connection.
Ok, however some key focuses presented in the video are on the vast amount of complaints in the areas that already have the new standard, their boxes are not working in recieving any free OTR broadcast but only the internet based subscrption services and I think he tested several of those boxes himself in other videos with clips of it in this one.
Truth be told I'm sure most of this will be ironed out, but that the present situation as it commonly is.
It is safe to say the driving force behind them wanting this much more versitial and two-way capable technology for tv is related primarily to expanding the online video streaming services to wide-coverage over the air.