Mission Broadcasting, Inc. (“Mission”), and Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST) (“Nexstar”), today announced the launch of NextGen TV on WPIX-TV in New York City, the #1 television market in the country. Mission owns WPIX-TV and Nexstar provides services to the station; the two companies worked together on today’s launch. The New York launch marks the 51st Nexstar-owned or partner market to begin broadcasting with ATSC 3.0. This week, Nexstar also transitioned its local television stations in El Paso and Baton Rouge, as well as a partner station in Baton Rouge owned by White Knight Broadcasting, Inc. The recent transitions add three more cities to the total number of Top 100 television markets that are on the air with a NextGen TV signal.
Over the course of 2023, Nexstar deployed ATSC 3.0 at local television stations in seven of its markets across the nation, including San Francisco, Dallas, and Des Moines. More than 58 million U.S. television households now receive a NextGen TV signal from a Nexstar-owned or partner station.
NextGen TV is a revolutionary new digital broadcast technology delivering stunning video with brilliant color, sharper images and deeper contrast to create a more life-like viewing experience. Based on ATSC 3.0, the world’s most advanced television broadcasting technology, NextGen TV can be enhanced with Internet content to enable viewers to get the most out of live sports, live news, and live events in real-time, without looking away from TV screens. ATSC 3.0 gives broadcasters the power to serve their markets with a range of high value data services in addition to improved television broadcasting. Nexstar is a participant in BitPath, a broadcaster-supported consortium creating a network for datacasting, with services launching soon.
“When it comes to the deployment of ATSC 3.0, we think scale is critically important to fostering consumer demand for NextGen TV sets and developing new businesses and services,” said Brett Jenkins, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Digital Officer for Nexstar Media Group, Inc. “Nexstar is extremely well-positioned to deliver broad-based data services to a wide range of businesses and industries. One study done by BIA suggested that these services could generate up to $15 billion in additional broadcast revenue by 2030, and Nexstar is actively pursuing discussions with potential customers interested in pursuing the new opportunities presented by NextGen TV now.”
Following the New York launch, the list of Nexstar-owned or partner stations/markets converted to NextGen TV in 2023 includes:
MARKET |
DMA |
STATION |
New York City |
1 |
WPIX-TV (Mission Broadcasting, Inc.) |
Dallas |
5 |
KDAF-TV |
San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose |
10 |
KRON-TV |
Des Moines |
67 |
WHO-TV |
Rochester, NY |
78 |
WROC-TV |
El Paso |
89 |
KTSM-TV |
Baton Rouge |
95 |
WBRL-CD, WGMB-TV, KZUP-CD (NXST) WVLA-TV (White Knight Broadcasting, Inc.) |
Nexstar will continue market launches in 2024, and expects to transition the Chicago and San Diego markets, two of the few remaining Top 30 DMAs currently without a NextGen TV signal. The recent launches follow a decade of development of the new technology and months of planning and preparation by Nexstar. Current programming remains available to all of Nexstar’s viewers in all of its markets, regardless of whether their television service is provided over-the-air or by a cable or satellite company. Antenna viewers can simply rescan their TV sets to ensure full service. Rescan instructions are available at: fcc.gov/rescan. Cable and satellite subscribers do not need to take any action.
About Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
Mission Broadcasting, Inc., is a television broadcasting company founded in 1996, acquires, develops, and operates television stations and interactive community websites in medium-sized markets in the United States. Its stations provide programming to its markets’ viewing audiences via cable or satellite services or over-the-air to those who utilize a television antenna. The company currently owns broadcast television stations in 26 markets across the country and has network affiliation agreements with ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW and MyNetwork.
About Nexstar Media Group, Inc.
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXST) is a leading diversified media company that produces and distributes engaging local and national news, sports and entertainment content across its television and digital platforms, including more than 300,000 hours of programming produced annually by its business units. Nexstar owns America’s largest local broadcasting group comprised of top network affiliates, with 200 owned or partner stations in 116 U.S. markets reaching 212 million people. Nexstar’s national television properties include The CW, America’s fifth major broadcast network, NewsNation, America’s fastest-growing national cable news network, popular entertainment multicast networks Antenna TV and Rewind TV, and a 31.3% ownership stake in TV Food Network. The Company’s portfolio of digital assets, including its local TV station websites, The Hill and NewsNationNow.com, are collectively a Top 10 U.S. digital news and information property. For more information, please visit nexstar.tv.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231214273320/en/