There is no better place to shop for a new TV transmitter and/or RF system than at an NAB Show. The only people or companies with government permission to buy and operate TV transmitters are those licensed by their national government broadcast regulator and granted call letters with a government-issued TV broadcast license. With the 2025 NAB Show rapidly approaching, let’s investigate what’s happening in that relatively tiny but expensive and exclusive broadcast TV RF hardware marketplace.

During the ‘TV repack’ from April 2017 until July 2020, the FCC directed approximately 988 US TV stations to replace their transmitters and antennas with new systems to broadcast on new channels, and helped stations pay for the move. According to the latest FCC data, nearly 7150 licensed TV transmitters are on the air in the US. Of those, approximately 1,375 are commercial VHF or UHF. Another 383 TV transmitters are educational (1758 total). There are 1887 low power (LPTV) transmitters on VHF or UHF, 381 ‘Class A’ TV (15Kw ERP UHF) licensed transmitters, and 3119 TV translators.

There are more LPTV stations on the air than double the number of full power commercial and educational TV stations. Same scenario with TV translators. These numbers indicate where the US TV transmitter market activity is today. In fact, approximately 55% of all the high-power, tall-tower commercial and educational TV stations commissioned new RF systems on new channels in the last 8 years thanks to repack.

LV Melts. HV Kills

The biggest difference between old TV transmitters and new TV transmitters is that the older transmitters used tubes and circuitry that required high-voltage and powerful high-voltage power supplies. TV transmitters today are solid-state, powered by a 50-60 VDC bus providing hundreds of amps to parallel solid state power amplifiers. High-voltage is extremely dangerous and can jump an air-gap. High voltage pushes transmitter tubes and electronic components to their limits and will kill anyone who contacts it. The lower voltage buses are much safer, but they can still wreak catastrophic havoc if someone accidentally drops a wrench or screwdriver across a 1000 amp power supply busbar. Many low-voltage power supplies and busbars are at the bottom of a transmitter rack, exactly where a dropped wrench will fall.

Most of the more popular repack replacement transmitters will last for a approximately 20-25 years. Therefore, about 55% of all high-power TV station transmitters should be reliable until about 2045 or so. On the other hand, the 45% that didn’t repack are due for a transmitter replacement. Engineers know TV transmitters don’t last forever. New RF technology is so much better and efficient, older transmitters automatically become obsolete.

Lower Towers, Lower Power

The TV transmitter trend at the 2025 NAB Show will be SFNs to fill in coverage gaps and shadows, and to extend coverage along highways to communicate with moving vehicles. I once tried to fix coverage gap issues with a new circularly polarized VHF TV antenna. All it did was move reception problems. I got about as many phone calls from happy viewers saying how much better our signal was as from those who asked “What happened to your station?” It all works together, and sometimes only a gap-filler RF system will help.

The TV transmitter trend at the 2025 NAB Show will be the simultaneous distribution of content from a single source to multiple recipients, aka the Broadcast Internet, or Datacasting, and 5G Broadcasting (5GB).

ATSC 1.0 allows single frequency networks (SFNs) but it’s clunky and touchy. It comes with reception sweet spots and nulls. ATSC 3.0 makes adding SFN transmitters much easier to deal with because it was designed with SFNs in mind. It can automatically deal with multiple SFN signals. Thus, there is much more interest in TV SFN’s than ever before, particularly considering the latest Broadcast Internet trend, broadcasting crucial traffic data to moving vehicles in real time. SFNs make managing and isolating program content and raw data much easier.

At The 2025 NAB Show

GatesAir (Booth W 2720) will take its wireless spectrum expertise into new territory at the 2025 NAB Show, beginning with a live demo showing 5G passthrough of live TV content to mobile devices. GatesAir will employ 5G modulation within its Maxiva XTE exciter to send live video content to a smartphone across the 5G waveform. GatesAir debuted 5G passthrough at IBC2024. The new modulation technique will effectively extend the delivery range of GatesAir’s Maxiva ULXTE, UAXTE and OP Series of liquid-cooled and air-cooled UHF transmitters to mobile audiences. 

GatesAir’s provision of 5G delivery across the UHF channels not only guarantees 5G exclusivity for voice and mobile cellular use, and it also gives broadcasters the ability to adopt 5G delivery without needing to replace their existing transmitters.

Similarly, GatesAir will debut its new, tower-mounted, IMTX 2+0 transmitter system in the US at the 2025 NAB Show. It adds a two-channel option to the popular Maxiva IMTX 2+0 Intra-Mast series. All the IMTX systems include a stacked array of transmission modules securely built into a chassis and pre-configured to provide TV service or fill coverage gaps where signal penetration is a challenge. IMTX systems are especially useful for populated urban areas with tight housing densities, or to establish a localized transmission point to serve rural or underserved communities. All IMTX transmission modules can deliver up to 70 W of average DTV power.

Its compact design, solid structural integrity and flexible connectivity points translate to clean installations inside hollow mast or traditional tower structures. Its sturdiness and unobtrusive presence also work well inside an RF shelter in desktop form. Tower structures provide complete protection from the outside environment while allowing heat dissipation via convection and forced air cooling. Same as previous models, the IMTX 2+0 offers vertical air convection flow within the chassis, complemented by a series of small fans. A DVB-S/S2 satellite receiver option is available as well as GbE (TS over IP), ASI, T2MI, and SMPTE-310M inputs.

Dielectric (Booth W 3000) will highlight how its recent technology innovations have prepared them for business growth in NextGen TV as broadcasters inch closer to planning ATSC 3.0 single-frequency networks (SFNs). Dielectric will demonstrate its reconfigurable manifold combiners for TV master antenna systems, along with its complete range of broadband antennas for ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 systems. The latter includes a low to medium power antenna built to serve SFN market configurations.

Dielectric will also add two models to its award-winning OptiLoad series, expanding its modernized solution for RF protection system to a broader set of broadcast customers. Dielectric LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

5G Broadcast US Progress

Despite the efforts of a small but enthusiastic 5G Broadcast lobby in the US the platform is thus far showing few signs of genuine traction in the US.

In Europe progress is strong thanks to the efforts of the 5G Broadcast Strategic Task Force (5BSTF) – comprising TDF (France), Media Broadcast (Germany), Rohde & Schwarz (Germany), Cordiant Capital (UK), Emitel (Poland), CRA (Czech Republic), BTCO (Belgium), and RAI (Italy). The Task Force is driving the development of a joint commercial 5GB roadmap across six European markets representing more than 270 million people. The Broadcast Bridge recently published a 5G Broadcast Update which details EU progress.

By contrast key influencers within the US market (E.W. Scripps, Gray Media, Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair) recently showed their preference with the announcement of EdgeBeam – a utilization of ATSC 3.0 infrastructure for commercial datacasting – as covered recently by The Broadcast Bridge HERE.

EdgeBeam will be a hot topic in the ATSC booth (W 3056). EdgeBeam is designed to broadcast one way data via ATSC 3.0 to deliver data across the country to any fixed or mobile civilian or military device with an ATSC 3.0 receiver. 

Other articles in this NAB 2025 'Show Focus' series:

The Broadcast Bridge will be at the NAB Show – in the West Hall on booth W 3932. Please come and see us and share your thoughts on what we do and what you would like to see from us in the coming year.