Prospects are looking up on two fronts for the third generation ATSC 3.0 digital terrestrial standard in the US a year ahead of deployment in 2020. Firstly, there is growing conviction that the major networks will collaborate to provide a coherent nationwide service exploiting new capabilities, notably ability to centralize transmissions by banding multiple TV stations in a single market using SFN (Single Frequency Network) technology. This follows the announcement at NAB Show New York in October 2018 that Fox, NBC, Univision, Pearl TV and Nexstar Media Group would collaborate over introduction of ATSC 3.0. Secondly, the features of ATSC 3.0 have received surprisingly strong endorsement from consumers in a recent survey, suggesting that it can help the networks compete…