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ATSC 3.0 is coming, prepare for chaos

Jared Newman   |   October 31, 2025
Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash

Things are about to get messy for free, over-the-air TV.

This week, the Federal Communications Commission passed a notice of proposed rulemaking that would let stations more quickly adopt the emerging ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. If the FCC enacts these rule changes, broadcasters will no longer have to support the ATSC 1.0 standard that works with most TVs and tuners. Instead, they’ll be able to scale back their ATSC 1.0 coverage and even switch entirely over to the new standard.

Broadcasters say that they have no incentive to abandon ATSC 1.0 anytime soon, and that the rule changes would just give them more flexibility to support the new standard. Viewers, however, stand to lose clarity on how long their existing TVs will keep working with an antenna and whether they’ll keep getting all the same content.

I’ve got all the details on what you need to know here →

Weekly rewind

Disney goes dark on YouTube: The blackout is happening. Disney and YouTube TV failed to reach a deal by midnight, and now Disney’s channels (including ABC and ESPN) are unavailable on the service. They are reportedly fighting over the cost of Disney’s channels, YouTube’s desire to integrate Disney streaming content directly in the YouTube TV app, and possibly a cheaper sports-centric channel package.

YouTube says it will offer subscribers a $20 credit if the blackout continues for “an extended period of time.” The credit doesn’t appear to be available yet.

ESPN Unlimited would be the most obvious way to get through the blackout, but there are other options. Fubo offers a free trial, but I believe it’s only five days and you’d have to be very careful about cancelling beforehand (or using a limited-use card). Sling’s Day Passes include ESPN for $5 per day, $10 for a weekend, or $15 for a week, but ABC is only included in a handful of markets. Hulu + Live TV is currently on sale for less than YouTube TV, but it could be a waste of money depending on how your billing cycle lines up and how long the blackout lasts. Let’s just hope it doesn’t go on for too long.

Hallmark-Frndly blackout threat: In other carriage dispute news, Hallmark has started warning viewers that its channels may go dark on Frndly TV, the $9 per month skinny bundle now operated by Roku. Neither company has said when a blackout would take effect or what they’re fighting about, though these disputes usually center on the cost to carry a programmer’s channels (and what subscribers pay in turn).

Roku acquired Frndly earlier this year, and I anticipated that Roku would use its market power to negotiate more favorable carriage deals with programmers. Hallmark, though, is a cornerstone in Frndly’s lineup—it’s the first channel Frndly promotes on its home page—so the programmer may not budge so easily.

More catch-up

Save more money

This section of the newsletter has some affiliate links, which earn me a commission if you wind up buying or subscribing to something.

Seemingly prompted by the Frndly carriage dispute, Hallmark+ is currently offering half-off for a year with promo code SAVE50NOW. That brings the price to $40 for the next year. Just look for the “Add Promo Code” box on the checkout page after picking a plan.

Other notable deals:

As always, see my big list of streaming deals for more.

What’s with all the AI browsers?

ChatGPT has a web browser now. In fact, it’s one of several new browsers that aim to take the friction out of using AI. But while these browsers have some neat ideas—I used one to automatically shop for everything on my grocery list—they also come with some major security and usability trade-offs.

My latest column for Advisorator members makes sense of it all. If you’re not a member yet, join us for as little as $5 and I’ll help you keep up with the tech world every Tuesday.

Thanks for reading!

Got questions? Let me know!

Until next week,
Jared