FCC Approves Next-Gen ATSC 3.0 TV Standard (reuters.com)

New submitter mikeebbbd writes: "U.S. regulators on Thursday approved the use of new technology that will improve picture quality on mobile phones, tablets and television, but also raises significant privacy concerns by giving advertisers dramatically more data about viewing habits," reports Reuters. ATSC3.0 will apparently make personal data collection and targeted ads possible. New TVs will be necessary, and broadcasters will need to transmit both ATSC 2.0 (the current standard) for 3 to 5 years before turning off the older system. For now, the conversion is voluntary. There appears to be no requirement (as there was when ATSC 2.0 came out) for low-cost adapter boxes to make older TVs work; once a channel goes ATSC 3.0-only, your old TV will not display it any more.

Comments

This probably won't help

[bobstreo]

Cable which can barely do 1080i on a good day. I have seen some broadcasts that were less thsn 480

How will the new TV with ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV spy/target ads at me if it isn't on Wifi or ethernet?

Re: This probably won't help

[Mal-2]

Set up your own in-house "ad server" and intercept the call. Each home-brewed "ad" features only a countdown until it ends, or maybe it gives you 30 seconds of RSS feed. Take the hook provided for the benefit of the advertisers, and use it against them.

Re:Goodbye TV

[BlueStrat]

" make personal data collection and targeted ads possible."

You can go F yourself right there and then.

Thankfully I stopped watching TV about a decade and a half ago so I won't have to go 'cold turkey' like some people I know who watch TV anytime they aren't actively doing something that would preclude it. A friend just spent around $3.5-$4K for this huge, curved, super-high-resolution/4K-blah-blah-blah monster "smart" TV that takes up an entire side of a not-small living room. I told him "you should have asked me to help research it for you first", as he knows I'm far, far more tech-savvy and usually does ask with most "tech" things, but he got excited at the store and made an impulse buy.

Not sure I want to be the one to tell him it's already nearly obsolete. He's still in shock about the privacy issues with such an "always listening/watching smart-TV" that I both told him and emailed him links to relevant information about.

Strat

I call bullshit

[knorthern knight]

1) We are currently on ATSC 1.0 (which replaced NTSC). There was a proposed ATSC 2.0 (although ATSC 1.1 might be a more appropriate name) with incremental improvements, and backwards compatable. It was abandoned before being implemented. Version 3.0 is a radical re-write, done from a clean slate, and hence incompatable.

2) My condo, north of Toronto, has an unobstructed view of the CN Tower, where the Toronto local TV stations all have their antennas. It's 17.5 km (almost 11 miles) distant. The properly-tuned TV transmitter antennas are cranking out hundreds of kilowatts ERP, and they don't always come in on my digital indoor antenna. (Silver Sensor log periodic). Does anybody competent really believe that a wide-band log-periodic table-top antenna, outputting a few milliwatts, will be received properly by the transmitter 11 miles away? Especially if tens of thousands of other antennas are watching the same show? bwaaahaaahaaahaaa

I also have a direct view to Grand Island, New York, where most Buffalo TV stations have their transmitter antennas. That's approximately 80 km (50 miles) distant. But from my 6th floor window, the reception is quite decent. We go from the ridiculous to the sublime, claiming that an antenna 50 miles away can recieve my few milliwatts sent back over a log periodic table-top antenna.

And we haven't even begun to consider a modded tuner that suppresses the return signal.