NEXTGEN TV launches on local TV in Norfolk, VA

Friday, November 20th, 2020
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Major Broadcasters Launch NEXTGEN TV On Four Local Television Stations In Norfolk, VA

  • WAVY-TV, WVBT, WNLO-CD and WTVZ-TV Begin Broadcasting with New Technology

NORFOLK, Va. — Four leading local television stations in Norfolk, VA, including WAVY-TV (NBC), WVBT and WNLO-CD (FOX), and WTVZ-TV (MyNet), today became among the first in the nation to begin broadcasting with NEXTGEN TV, a revolutionary new digital broadcast technology. 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 immersive audio and video (up to 4K), broadcasting to mobile devices, personalized viewing tools, and advanced emergency alerts providing rich media instead of simple text messages. NEXTGEN TV also allows full integration with 5G and other broadband-delivered Internet content.

Powered by ATSC 3.0, NEXTGEN TV is the most significant broadcast technology upgrade ever. Today’s launch in the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News-Virginia Beach market is one of the first in the country for NEXTGEN TV and follows a decade of development of the new technology and months of planning and preparation by the local stations. BitPath, which is developing new data broadcasting services, led the planning process and coordinated efforts across the four television stations. All four of the stations will be charter members of BitPath’s broadcast data network, which will launch in 2021.

The participating stations have cooperated to ensure that current programming remains available to all viewers, 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.