NAB Show 2024 Expecting 65,000-70,000 Attendees, 1,300 Exhibitors
Broadcasters attending the 2024 NAB Show in Las Vegas will focus on exploiting and guarding against the latest advances in artificial intelligence, on making the now 7-year-old transition to ATSC 3.0 finally pay off, and on surviving an unfavorable regulatory landscape, industry officials told us. “We’ve been building out the service; now it’s put up or shut up time,” said Gray Television Senior Vice President Rob Folliard of ATSC 3.0. The show kicks off Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
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NAB is projecting 65,000 to 70,000 attendees, and 1,300 exhibitors. The 2023 event had 65,000 attendees and around 1,200 exhibiting companies. That was the best attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the in-person show cancelation in 2020 and 2021. The final pre-pandemic NAB Show, in 2019, attracted 91,460 attendees and more than 1,600 exhibitors.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel isn't scheduled to attend, NAB told us. Although broadcasters said it isn’t unusual for FCC chairs to miss the trade show, in fact it hasn’t happened in 15 years, excepting the canceled shows in 2021 and 2020. The last chair who did not address the show was then-acting Chairman Mike Copps in 2009. Copps told us last week he likely missed the show because he was very busy. “We were right in the middle of the DTV transition,” he said. Copps’ predecessor, Kevin Martin, also missed attending the trade show during some of the years he was chair. The FCC didn’t comment on the reason Rosenworcel isn’t attending, but the agency announced its long-anticipated net neutrality draft order last week. FCC Commissioners Anna Gomez and Nathan Simington will speak at the 2024 show.
“ATSC 3.0 is just taking too long,” said Cocola Broadcasting CEO Gary Cocola. Cocola wants to monetize 3.0 by using it to datacast advertisements to video billboards, but dissemination of the tech is not happening fast enough, he said. Cocola said he is interested in but also unsure about alternative paths such as 5G broadcast (see 2306120003). Broadcasters are looking to the show for concrete ways to use 3.0 to help their business, said broadcast broker Gregory Guy. “It’s time for us to show what the platform is capable of,” said Folliard. Sinclair Broadcast, Pearl TV and the Advanced Television Systems Committee have announced numerous panels and exhibits at the show about 3.0 monetization. XGen Network (XGN) and Malachi Media announced last week the 5G Broadcast Collective, a nonprofit entity promoting 5G broadcast.
Broadcasters told us they don’t expect to do much dealmaking at NAB 2024. Folliard said he has never viewed it as a good venue for buying and selling stations. Though there are opportunities for deals involving individual stations, the pool of buyers is limited at the moment, Guy said. Recent FCC action on ownership, such as the 2018 quadrennial review order (see 2403050075) and the March notice of apparent liability against Nexstar (see 2403220067), are also discouraging transactions, broadcasters said.
NAB has said the show will emphasize advances in AI, and the opening session will include NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt interviewing an AI-powered humanoid robot. Broadcasters are interested in learning about AI to enhance their product but also to protect broadcasting’s integrity against it, said Georgia Association of Broadcasters President Bob Houghton in an interview. His members want to exploit AI's efficiency and offer new services, Houghton said. Sinclair Broadcast announced Tuesday that it will begin using generative AI to translate some tennis programming into Spanish.
The show also includes a session on combating AI-generated misinformation, a concern raised in NAB’s latest policy agenda (see 2402280060). “The improper use of artificial intelligence poses novel threats to broadcasting’s unique and indispensable role in American life,” NAB said. Deepfaked visuals and audio are already complicating news broadcasting, Houghton said, because not only can they lead to the dissemination of bad information, but their existence also creates doubt about legitimate information. “The news is sacred in broadcasting, and we have to protect it,” Houghton said.