Novel techniques are described for enabling headphone-driven systems to handle packetized streams of next-generation television (NGTV) content. For example, a headphone system can include an antenna and a NGTV tuner to receive and decode a packetized television content stream wirelessly from a content provider via a digital television content network. The decoded stream can be processed by the headphone system to generate an audio stream and a video stream. Audio content of the audio stream can be output via an audio transducer of the headphone system. The video stream can be transmitted, via a device interface of the headphone system, to a media playback device for outputting of video content (e.g., and audio content, in some cases) of the video stream. For example, the video stream is transmitted, via a short-range wireless network to a smartphone, tablet computer, transport vehicle display, or other playback device.