Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXST) announced that KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV, Nexstar Inc.’s local television stations serving the Denver, Colorado, area (DMA #16) have begun broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, the revolutionary new digital broadcast technology powered by ATSC 3.0. Denver is Nexstar’s twelfth market to begin broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 this year, and the second top-20 market to do so.
Based on the same fundamental technology as the Internet, digital applications, and other web services, NEXTGEN TV can support a wide range of features currently in development, such as higher quality video and immersive audio, broadcasting to mobile devices, personalized viewing tools, and advanced emergency alerts. BitPath, the all-new broadcast data network launching in 2021, provides support for Nexstar’s ATSC 3.0 rollouts, and all of Nexstar’s ATSC 3.0 television stations will participate in the BitPath broadcast data network.
“With brilliant video and audio, NEXTGEN TV brings a whole new dimension to the television viewing experience and we are excited to rollout this advanced technology at Nexstar’s Denver stations,” said Brett Jenkins, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Nexstar Media Group, Inc.
“Not only does NEXTGEN TV deliver important upgrades for our viewers and advertisers, it also enables us to begin exploring new opportunities to use this very efficient and effective content and data distribution technology to meet the challenges of today’s evolving digital world. We plan to roll-out NEXTGEN TV to 32 more stations in 20 additional Nexstar markets in 2021, as we aggressively move forward implementing this highly sophisticated technology across the 115 markets we serve nationwide. When we finish our 2021 deployments, approximately 33% of all television households reached by a Nexstar television station will receive a NEXTGEN TV signal. I am incredibly proud of the leadership of our stations in making continued, tangible progress towards bringing NEXTGEN TV to a significant portion of the United States.”
Following the launch, the full list of Nexstar owned or operated stations/markets that have converted to NEXTGEN TV this year includes:
STATION MARKET DMA ----------------- ------------------ --- WFLA Tampa, FL 13 KDVR/KWGN Denver, CO 16 KOIN/KRCW Portland, OR 21 WNCN Raleigh, NC 24 WKRN Nashville, TN 29 KTVX/KUCW Salt Lake City, UT 30 KXAN/KNVA/KBVO-CD Austin, TX 38 KLAS Las Vegas, NV 40 KFOR/KAUT Oklahoma City, OK 44 WAVY/WVBT/WNLO-CD Norfolk, VA 46 WKRG/WFNA Mobile, AL 57 WWLP/WFXQ-CD Springfield, MA 116
The launch in Denver follows a decade of development of the new technology and months of planning and preparation by Nexstar Inc. 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.