SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
“ It was that long-term vision , which caused us to be able to take that leap and invest in the future for which the rest of our peers had no appetite ”
CHRIS RIPLEY PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER , SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP
channels to enhance traditional programming significantly , reach mobile devices for the first time , hyper-localise content and advertising , combine over-the-air content with streaming content and distribute wholly new forms of non-video data . This brings the modern , fully mobile world , to old broadcast setups using technology already in place .
“ It ' s never been used for anything other than typically delivering network television or news or entertainment to the television in your house ,” says Smith . “ Now we have the ability to talk to cars , telephones , anything that ' s mobile , any place , anywhere in the United States and we ' re working toward getting the adoption of the standard into all devices , into cars and mobile devices into everything that ' s capable of receiving over-the-air television signals .
“ The incremental value to our local TV stations by expanding to mobile viewers and targeting programming and advertising alone is worth the investment before you even get to all the new businesses created by this technology ,” says Smith .
“[ It gives ] the ability to talk to mobile devices , and being in the news business and the weather business , it gives us the ability to tell people , ‘ Hey , there ' s a hurricane and there ' s a tornado . There ' s whatever coming in your neighborhood , get undercover ’,” he says . “ We ' re the only ones that can do that because we ' re on the ground live , real-time and have that ability to connect two devices .”
Smith says this technology can save lives from extreme weather events , hazardous spills , police emergencies or any other critical events since the broadcast tech is one-to-infinite – everyone can receive the message simultaneously with no buffering , pixelation or lost signals . The broadcast tech can ’ t be overloaded .
“ That ' s what we do . We ' re in the business of serving everybody that isn ' t rich ,” says Smith . “ A local television station covers a radius of typically 45-50 miles . We are able to touch everybody inside that radius , which is millions and millions of people across the country . We do that every day with a new broadcast standard .
“ We ' re going to be able to build that out , so you won ' t have to be sitting in your house to watch us . You ' ll be able to watch us everywhere you are .”
Journeying to the Technology to Connect People Mark Aitken worked for a small company , COMARK Industries , at a time in the TV industry when videotape was replacing film and the UHF spectrum was just beginning to be used by independent broadcasters . In 1979 , COMARK ’ s founder , Richard Fiore Sr ., started a partnership with
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