After three years of consistent support for the ATSC 3.0 tuner, LG plans to forgo the ATSC 3.0 tuner due to a patent dispute with a company called Constellation Designs LLC.

The crux of the dispute, summarized in a letter from LG to the FCC, is that because of the patent litigation, the royalty on each LG television sold with an ATSC 3.0 tuner will be raised from $3.00 to $6.75.

"This difficult and uncertain patent situation has forced LG to make the difficult decision to discontinue the inclusion of ATSC 3.0 compatible devices in its 2024 U.S. television lineup," LG said in a statement to the FCC. The decision was not made lightly as "LG has been a strong supporter of ATSC 3.0, a strong supporter of local broadcasters, and a key developer of television products featuring the latest NEXTGEN TV technology."

The list of TVs currently equipped with ATSC 3.0 tuners includes the LG G3 OLED, LG M3 OLED, and the high-end LG Z3 8K OLED TV. However, LG states in its letter that without FCC intervention, future models of these series, such as the LG G4, M4, and Z4, will not support NextGen TV technology. [The threat to remove the ATSC 3.0 tuner may just be LG's way of trying to get the FCC to intervene and take LG's side in the patent dispute.

If LG ditches the ATSC 3.0 tuner, the premium for LG's flagship TVs may drop a bit compared to rival Samsung and Sony TVs that have ATSC 3.0 tuners. Also, if LG reverts back to ATSC 1.0 tuners, customers looking for next-generation TV compatibility may continue to buy older models instead of newer models.

What seems most likely, at least to me, is that LG will keep the ATSC 3.0 tuner on its flagship TVs and allocate the additional cost of the tuner to customers. That could be something as innocuous as a $25-$50 price increase for next year's models compared to this year's models, or it could be a much larger number.

Again, at this point it is difficult to predict what will happen.

Want a more affordable ATSC 3.0 TV? Check out Samsung's S95C OLED or scan our guide to the best ATSC 3.0 TVs.