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After my last column, I heard from several respected friends across the industry. Their feedback was clear: While I’ve focused heavily on monetization, content and audience engagement, I’ve only briefly touched on one of the greatest opportunities in broadcast’s transformation — datacasting.
They’re right. And it’s time to take a closer look.
During my time at E.W. Scripps, I was fortunate to work on the Over-the-Air Wireless joint venture with Nexstar. I had a front-row seat to the promise of this technology, and I can tell you it’s real. Yet, I don’t believe many in our industry fully grasp the potential, the mechanics or the business implications of datacasting. Perhaps I can help with that.
The recent formation of Edgebeam Wireless, a joint effort by Sinclair, Nexstar, Scripps and Gray, is a promising step. It’s rare to see four of the largest local broadcasters come together with a shared vision and investment. But they’re doing it, and the implications could be massive.
What Is Datacasting?
Put simply, datacasting uses a broadcaster’s licensed spectrum to deliver data, not just video. That same infrastructure that brings you the evening news, our favorite primetime shows and football can also send firmware updates to cars, emergency alerts to remote outposts, can help CDNs with data delivery or GPS corrections to transportation fleets and do it reliably, securely and cost-effectively.
The real magic lies in scale. Datacasting is inherently one-to-many. Whether a broadcaster transmits a 1 GB file to 100 devices or 10 million, the cost doesn’t materially change. That’s a