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Broadcasters Take the Wheel on NextGen TV

Plus, Gap creates an insider's club complete with commissions

October 17, 2025

Welcome to The TV Room. Your weekly briefing on the shifts in television, streaming, and digital advertising that shape the industry.

This week we’re looking at:

  • 📡 Broadcasters Have to Blaze the Trail to 3.0

  • 📱 Fox Scouts Out Short-Form

  • 🎬 Creative Spotlight: Gushers: “FruitHead”

  • 🤳 Gap Champion the Little Guys

Broadcasters Will Drive the NextGen Transition

The Federal Communications Commission’s October 7 notice on ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV, reshapes how television’s next broadcast standard will evolve. The agency ended mandatory simulcasting rules to let broadcasters decide when and how to move to the new format.

The change gives the industry freedom but also leaves the rollout murky. Without firm deadlines or technical requirements, the transition now depends largely on business strategy and market demand.

Encryption and access headaches

Viewers have filed thousands of complaints about encrypted ATSC 3.0 signals that prevent certified receivers from displaying what should be free, over‑the‑air channels. The FCC is seeking feedback on whether that encryption system, managed by a private security consortium, creates barriers for both consumers and smaller tech developers trying to enter the market.

The cost of slow adoption

After eight years of voluntary rollout, fewer than 12% of US TV households have NextGen-ready sets. According to the Consumer Technology Association, those models cost approximately $157 more than comparable TVs. Meanwhile, licensing fees tied to ATSC 3.0 patents are adding pressure on manufacturers, with at least one major brand pausing production.

Why it matters

The commission’s latest step gives broadcasters wide latitude to experiment with new services, everything from interactive programming to data delivery, while still maintaining traditional channels. What remains unclear is how quickly consumers will adopt the tech and whether current TVs will keep pace.

For now, the country’s next era of broadcasting looks less like a single national switchover and more like hundreds of local decisions unfolding at their own speed.

Read More:

TV Industry Updates

  • Fox goes vertical: Fox invested in short-form studio Holywater to chase Gen Z’s portrait-screen habits.

  • Cloud cover: Google Cloud secured NBCU’s 2028 LA Olympics deal to power coverage with AI-driven content.

  • Apple’s fresh start: Apple TV rebranded, dropping the “+” to streamline its identity and launch its new F1 movie push.

  • Beast mode: MrBeast and TelevisaUnivision teamed up on the “Road to Beast Cup,” a creator-meets-soccer spectacle.

  • Netflix plays big: Netflix added TV-based games controlled by smartphones, opening its streaming portfolio to new media formats.

  • Football fuels the fall: Football lifted Q3 linear ad spend by 4%, keeping live sports the industry’s MVP.

Creative Spotlight: Gushers: “FruitHead”

Gushers created a darkly comic horror short film that reimagined the backstory of their classic "They'll drive you fruity" commercials from the 1990s.

The Details:

  • The short film starred Bradley Whitford as Richard, a fictional ad director haunted by Jacob, a child actor left with a deformed strawberry head after the original commercial shoot

  • Shot as a psychological thriller, the piece blended nostalgic commercial footage with horror movie tropes, complete with haunting music and supernatural elements

  • The campaign leveraged social media platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and TikTok, to distribute the content and build anticipation around the horror theme

What We Loved: The campaign weaponized 90s nostalgia by transforming beloved commercial imagery into genuinely unsettling horror content, engineered for maximum social shareability through shock value alone.

A live look at TV’s boldest promise

In advertising, big claims demand clear evidence. And with Guaranteed Outcomes by tvScientific, we’ve offered up the proof that TV performs.

Across the industry, marketers are pushing for transparency they can trust. Data that’s not hidden behind black boxes or fuzzy metrics. Powered by tvScientific AI, campaigns auto-optimize to your exact goals so every dollar works harder.

See the proof for yourself at the Proof Over Promises webinar, where Wildgrain, LG, and Rockerbox share how they’re scaling with zero wasted spend.

📅 October 21

Marketing Mix

  • Gap gets granular: Gap Inc. launched a creator affiliate hub across all brands, rewarding small influencers with commissions and gifting.

  • Target goes genuine: Target’s Woolrich collab moved from studio sets to NYC streets, starring Lauren Wolfe and David Kushner.

  • Meta reroutes placements: Meta’s API update promises to repurpose excluded ad slots through Advantage+ automation.

  • How to get in with Gen-Z: Top CMOs argued that Gen-Z’s perceived lack of brand loyalty and aversion to ads are a myth during an Advertising Week panel.

  • Eagle flies steady: American Eagle has now added a million new customers after its Sydney Sweeney campaign.

  • Sora hits warp speed: OpenAI’s video app reached one million downloads in under five days.