LG was one of the very first companies to bring ATSC 3.0 tuners to its TVs in 2020, and just three years later it’s one of the first to drop it. LG just confirmed that its 2024 OLED TVs will not include next-generation ATSC 3.0 4K tuners (“NEXGEN”).
It’s not a technical problem. It’s a money problem. LG has lost its patent battle with Constellation Designs, meaning the royalties payable on each ATSC 3.0 tuner have risen from three dollars to just under seven dollars.
That may not seem like a lot of money on an OLED TV costing over a thousand dollars. But LG, which is behind some of the best TVs we’ve had the pleasure of testing, clearly thinks it’s too much money.
What does LG say about ATSC 3.0?
In a statement to the US Federal Communications Commission, as reported by FlatpanelsHD.comsays LG that “this challenging and uncertain patent landscape has forced LG to make the difficult decision to suspend the inclusion of ATSC 3.0 compatibility in its 2024 television schedule for the United States.” The word ‘suspend’ is key here. LG wants the FCC to investigate and “recognize that actions by certain patent holders pose risks (including unsustainable costs) that impact the continued deployment of advanced technologies.”
The patent landscape could be one reason why LG has gone easy on ATSC 3.0: the technology isn’t in the A or C series TVs, which are its biggest sellers. But the decision to remove ATSC altogether seems like LG is throwing down a gauntlet. Broadcast TV in the US isn’t doing so well. To put it bluntly, streaming is eating its lunch: combined broadcast and cable viewing fell below 50% of all viewership for the first time last year. And the fact that one of ATSC’s most important supporters stops supporting it feels like an ultimatum: you have a great broadcasting industry here, it would be a shame to lose it.
It will also be interesting to see how other manufacturers respond to the increase in patent costs. As we previously reported, MediaTek has designed an ATSC 3.0 system for affordable TV companies. If these companies, and other leading manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung, choose to follow LG’s lead and shelve their ATSC plans, it could be a serious blow to emerging TV technology. And that’s probably bad news for us, as streamers look for increasingly inventive ways to bring back the bad old days of cable — like Amazon’s plans to charge extra if you stream ad-free on Prime Video want – we need more. competition in the TV viewing market, no less.