Digital television in the United States

This article is missing information about terrestrial broadcast frequencies. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (July 2024)

Digital television in the United States is available via digital terrestrial television (DTT), digital cable, satellite television, and IPTV providers (including those delivered over private networks, and those delivered as over-the-top streaming television services over the public internet).

Digital terrestrial television (DTT) uses the ATSC standards, replacing the NTSC standards used for analog television, and offering capabilities such as high definition (HD) signals and digital subchannels. All full-power television stations in the United States were required to shut down their analog signals and transition exclusively to digital broadcasting by June 12, 2009. Class A low-power analog stations were required to transition by September 1, 2015, while all other low-power stations, as well as analog rebroadcasters, were required to transition by July 13, 2021.

In November 2017, the FCC approved ATSC 3.0 (Next Gen TV), an updated version of the ATSC standards that supports High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), video resolutions of up to 4K ultra high-definition (4K UHD), 120 Hz frame rate, high-dynamic-range (HDR) color, datacasting, and mobile television. Unlike the original digital transition, ATSC 3.0 is a voluntary standard, and broadcasters are not required to adopt it. However, those that do must continue to provide legacy ATSC signals with "substantially similar" programming. ^[1][2]