How ATSC 3.0 aims to win over cord-cutters in 2026

As the FCC looks to accelerate ATSC 3.0 adoption for over-the-air TV, broadcasters are eager to show off options that don’t involve replacing your TV or giving up DVR.

Ahead of this week’s CES trade show, the broadcaster consortium Pearl TV announced a certification program for no-frills converter boxes that will plug into the HDMI port on any TV. Anne Schelle, Pearl TV’s managing director, said in an interview that the goal is to have converter boxes available this fall that will be priced at less than $60.

Also at CES this week, broadcasters are touting advancements in ATSC 3.0 “gateway” boxes that offer live TV and DVR on multiple TVs throughout the home. Both Zapperbox and ADTH are developing whole-home DVR solutions that work with encrypted ATSC 3.0 channels, clearing some longstanding hurdles with digital rights management.

All of this suggests a new level of urgency as broadcasters push to wind down the current ATSC 1.0 standard. If they want the FCC’s approval for a full transition to ATSC 3.0, they’ll need to show that they’re not leaving people behind.

Sub-$60 converter boxes (maybe)

ATSC 3.0 allows for new features, such as 4K HDR video, dialog enhancement, interactive programming, and potentially better reception, but the standard is not compatible with the ATSC 1.0 tuners built into most televisions. Viewers who want to access these features must either buy a TV with an ATSC 3.0 tuner or connect an external tuner box.

Today, the least-expensive tuner box from ADTH costs $90, and Zinwell’s NextGen TV box is even pricier at $129. Pearl TV aims to bring prices down with a new class of converter boxes that shave away features such as DVR and possibly some interactive features. It also plans to negotiate IP (intellectual property) and component costs on behalf of certified device makers while also helping to secure retail distribution. The idea is that Pearl TV will have more bargaining power than any individual device maker.

“What we’re asking for, for this box, is to act as if the market’s there already, and [suppliers should] give us what that discount would have been at millions, instead of tens of thousands [of units],” Schelle said.

Just don’t expect the government to help pay for the hardware. Unlike with the analog-to-digital transition, Pearl TV is operating under the assumption that congressionally mandated federal dollars won’t be available to subsidize ATSC 3.0 converter box purchases.

Pearl isn’t guaranteeing the $60 price point, either. With uncertainty over tariffs and and DRAM shortages inflating the price of all sorts of consumer electronics, these converter boxes could end up being pricier, Schelle said.

DVR progress

Meanwhile, broadcasters want to show that tech enthusiasts can still have full-featured DVRs in the ATSC 3.0 era, even as broadcasters encrypt their-over-the-air channels.

A3SA, the broadcast group that serves as the security authority for ATSC 3.0, this week pointed to a couple of whole-home DVR gateway solutions, from ZapperBox and ADTH respectively. While both companies actually revealed their plans late last year, A3SA is using CES to draw new attention to them.

ZapperBox, which offers an array of ATSC 3.0 tuner boxes with DVR support, now sells a tuner-free ZapperBox Mini that extends the DVR to additional televisions, with full support for encrypted channels and recordings. Apps for streaming devices are coming later this year. allowing access a single DVR across multiple televisions without extra hardware.

ADTH is also working on a whole-home DVR for its $90 tuner. A forthcoming firmware update will let users access live and recorded TV via ADTH’s Fire TV and Android TV apps, although the company hasn’t set a release date.

And while SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun networked tuner remains unable to access encrypted ATSC 3.0 channels, there are signs of progress on that front, too. SiliconDust announced in November 2025 that it had become an ATSC 3.0 Certificate Authority for NextGen TV, and the company had a demo stall at the modest ATSC booth at CES for the first time.

Pearl TV has previously said that HDHomeRun was ineligible for DRM certification because it uses a chip from a subsidiary of Huawei, which the FCC has deemed a security threat. In an interview at CES, SiliconDust CTO and founder Nick Kelsey said the chip isn’t relevant to handling encrypted channels, and that HDHomeRun doesn’t even do the decryption itself. (Instead, it passes the video along to streaming devices, such as a Fire TV or Android TV, to handle the decryption.)

Kelsey said the allegations were “weird,” as the company had a great working relationship with Pearl previously, but added that those relations have since gone back to normal. He’s now hoping that HDHomeRun devices will support encrypted ATSC 3.0 channels this year without any additional hardware.

“It’s not something that’s going to drag on further, and that’s not just us. Everyone in the industry is of a similar opinion,” he said.

These developments won’t allay every concern about ATSC 3.0. Gateway devices still require an internet connection for DRM, and out-of-home viewing won’t be possible. It also remains unclear if tuners will be able to work with third-party DVR software, such as Plex and Channels. For those reasons, ATSC 3.0 might remain toxic among tech enthusiasts even as the DVR options improve.

The FCC is watching

The impetus for all this activity is, of course, the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking on accelerating ATSC 3.0 adoption. It calls for an end to the requirement that broadcasters simulcast their ATSC 3.0 channels in ATSC 1.0, but it also asks some pointed questions about DRM and the lack of affordable ways to keep accessing free over-the-air TV. The FCC still needs to vote on its proposals, which could happen in the fall, Schelle said.

So far, however, the FCC’s proposed rules don’t include a cutoff date for ATSC 1.0, nor does it mandate ATSC 3.0 tuners in televisions. The National Association of Broadcasters is hoping to be rid of ATSC 1.0 by 2028 in the 55 largest U.S. markets, and everywhere by 2030. Now the broadcast industry is trying to show that it will actually be ready for that.

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