Television viewers in the biggest TV market in the Pacific Northwest could now get a taste of the future. And, it comprises broadcast radio.
Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary ONE Media 3.0 has combined both television plus radio services for delivery in Seattle, because of ATSC 3.0 technology and the NEXTGEN TV voluntary rollout currently underway.
How is broadcast radio involved?
Using radio content from Sinclair’s over-the-top service STIRR, the audio channels would be accessible for free instantly to anybody with a NEXTGEN television set linked to the internet.
But, what over-the-air radio is incorporated? Sinclair’s press release, fascinatingly, references “radio channels” that are Stingray-produced music channels as found on Hotwire’s Fision cable television service.
Interestingly, Sinclair did not even reference its lone radio properties: News KOMO-AM 1000 & FM 97.7; Hot AC KPLZ-FM “Star 101.5”; plus Talk KVI-AM 570.
However, Sinclair verified that the Broadcast App developed by ONE Media 3.0 “is the focus for delivery of these new services.”
Piloted by ONE Media 3.0 in Nashville, NEXTGEN radio services, branded as “STIRR XT,” are what are now accessible in Seattle.
In the words of Sinclair Broadcast Group, “The novel technology brings a new ‘age of radio’ into the listening atmosphere of NEXTGEN viewers by using NEXTGEN-enabled TVs as well as mobile devices to increase the accomplish of audio services. Combining these Internet audio services through over-the-air radio is next on the prospect for the Seattle market.”
While it did not offer one set of call letters as an element of this new service, Michael Bouchard, ONE Media’s VP of Technology approach, said, “This breakthrough technology lays the foundation for our plans of enhancing the reception of terrestrial over-the-air radio services all through the country, as NEXTGEN television is deployed by broadcasters all over the place.”
