Standardizing Web TV: Adapting ATSC 3.0 for Use on any IP Network

The ATSC 3.0 family of standards and the associated NEXTGEN TV brand define a new technology generation for broadcast television. As a hybrid TV standard, ATSC 3.0 allows for both video and HTML5 content and delivery via broadband as well as over-the-air broadcast. Presently, though ATSC 3.0 allows for video and applications to be delivered over any Internet Protocol network, it only allows them to be discovered via an over-the-air broadcast. Here we propose simple changes to ATSC 3.0’s A/331 Signaling, Delivery, Synchronization, and Error Protection specification to allow for discovery of channels automatically on any IP connection via well-known multicast or via HTTPS aided by DNS Service Discovery on domains that are provided by an ISP or user or are well-known. These changes would allow an ATSC 3.0 TV to connect not just to content discovered via broadcast signaling but also to ATSC 3.0 conformant channels and applications discovered on the local network; provided by a cellular network, ISP or IPTV provider; or available publicly on the WWW. Completing the broadband capability of ATSC 3.0 would allow users on compliant TVs to channel surf to live content, streaming services, local devices and web apps, keeping more users on the native TV UI. Making ATSC 3.0 signaling more broadly accessible positions ATSC 3.0 more clearly as a universal runtime for both applications and video, reducing the need within the industry for proprietary application platforms and hardware dongles.