Sinclair's Smith Sees Next-Gen TV Progress

Sinclair Broadcast Group boss David Smith projects next-generation television standards will be on the Federal Communications Commission's desk by the end of 2015, if not before. The platform being developed by ONE Media, the joint venture between Sinclair and Coherent Logix, looms large in the standards development. The Advanced Television Systems Committee has reportedly already accepted a key signaling component developed by ONE Media and China's National Research Center of Digital Television.

"By July, maybe August, we should know essentially what the future platform will look like, what business platforms we can roll off that will look like," Smith said during a first-quarter earnings conference call with analysts and investors. ONE Media is developing a platform that would use and extend the reach of existing "high power/tall tower" broadcast infrastructure to deliver digital television signals as well as a host of data services to portable and mobile devices. Smith is a leading advocate of a next-generation ATSC standard, dubbed ATSC 3.0, that would enable broadcasters to more effectively compete with hard-wired and wireless broadband providers, including cable and telecommunications companies.