The Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc., better known as “ATSC”, says premium TVs from LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Sony will be among the first to come with a built in ATSC 3.0 tuner that will allow over-the-air broadcasters to deliver content in 4K high dynamic range. 

The new standard is often referred to as “Nextgen TV”, and replaces the older ATSC 1.0 standard that came out in 2009. 

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, LG said that its GX, WZ and ZX 8K OLED TVs will all feature a built-in ATSC tuner. Samsung said ATSC 3.0 will appear in its 2020 8K TVs, while Sony will enable it on its X900H LCD TV that debuted at CES. 

Features supported by ATSC 3.0 include 4K resolution, HDR and object-based audio. It will also enable up to 120 frames per second video, higher bitrates and HEVC compression. 

“Early-adopter consumers with these TVs will benefit from Nextgen TV's new services being launched by local TV stations across America," said Gordon Smith, President of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The ATSC standard is used in both the U.S. and South Korea, but many other countries, including the U.K., use the alternative DVB tuner standard instead. The adoption of the new standard is timely as several major U.S. broadcasters, including NBCUniversald and Sinclair are planning to launch their first ATSC 3.0 channels this year. 

The standard should enable over-the-air broadcasters to achieve parity with streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, both of which have offered content in 4K HDR for several years already.