The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to open discussions on the deployment of a next-generation broadcast-TV standard that should offer picture quality up to 4K Ultra High Definition and better antenna reception than today’s over-the-air digital signals. Yes, the ones that only replaced analog broadcasts a few years ago.

That 3-0 vote by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O’Rielly doesn’t mean you should return the set you bought for the Super Bowl (I’m sorry, “Big Game”).

But their move to start crafting a next-gen TV policy will add uncertainty to the business of buying a TV going forward.

The ABCs of ATSC 3.0

Like 2009’s transition to digital TV signals, this upgrade’s primary sales pitch is about a better picture — not just high definition, but the Ultra High Definition (UHD) 4K resolution that today remains largely confined to streaming-video services and Blu-ray discs.

“Next-gen TV” — the normal-people term for what technies call “ATSC 3.0,” which refers to the Advanced Television Systems Committee that helps write these standards — will deliver UHD signals over the air for free. That comes courtesy of major advances in video compression since the 1990s technology employed in today’s digital TV, aka “ATSC 1.0” or “DTV.”

Like current UHD sets, next-gen TV will also support HDR, or “high dynamic range,” which makes colors pop. HDR, unlike the 4K, also benefits smaller screens.

For local stations, next-gen TV offers the added lure of supporting interactive data services (some of which might cost extra) and reception on future mobile devices.

For viewers — cord cutters, especially — it promises more reliable reception than current digital broadcasts. In a 2015 demonstration, test hardware picked up a half-strength ATSC 3.0 broadcast signal from 10 miles away … in the basement of a Cleveland office building. That’s impressive.

Sets and stations

Unfortunately, nobody sells an ATSC 3.0-compatible set in the U.S. That’s not likely to happen this year, either, based on the nearly-complete absence of the technology from most exhibits at CES in January.

Instead, next-gen TV will see its commercial debut in Korea, which will host and broadcast the 2018 Winter Olympics in the new format. I suspect we’ll see U.S.-market ATSC 3.0 TVs at CES 2018, but not sooner. Considering how cheap UHD sets have already gotten, though, I doubt this will involve a noticeable price premium.

U.S.-based ATSC 3.0 broadcasts, meanwhile, haven’t gone beyond tests in a few cities. In Cleveland, for instance, local station WJW broadcast the World Series live on an unused channel, while Raleigh-Durham’s WRAL began airing its news programs on next-gen TV last summer.