TV broadcasters aim for mobile standard

LAS VEGAS-Rather than ceding control of the mobile TV market to the nation’s wireless carriers, nine U.S. TV broadcast groups have formed an industry alliance called the Open Mobile Video Coalition to speed the development and standardization of a mobile variant for digital broadcast TV.
The broadcasters, which own 281 television stations in 110 U.S. markets, made the announcement from Las Vegas last week in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters 2007 show. The move comes as a variety of companies take aim at the mobile TV market. Already Verizon Wireless is offering mobile TV service through Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO USA Inc. network, and AT&T Inc.’s Cingular plans to do the same later this year. At first glance, the goals of the OMVC appear to stand as a threat to the carrier-dominated mobile TV market by providing an alternate, potentially free mobile TV service comprised of local TV channels.
The OMVC’s aim is to realize the “full potential” of digital broadcast television spectrum in the United States. The spectrum is currently used for stationary TVs, and the current technology does not lend itself to mobile applications. The coalition hopes to rally support around one of the recently announced technologies that will allow local digital TV broadcasters to beam their offerings to portable devices like cellphones. However, to date no cellphones have been announced that support the new technologies.
According to OMVC’s charter, the group urges a forum for members and affiliates to discuss product requirements and technology specifications related to mobile digital broadcast TV; promotes the development of products, services and standards enabling mobile TV; and aims to educate broadcasters, technology developers, consumers and regulators about the value, benefits and applications of mobile TV.
Belo Corp., Fox Television Stations, Gannett Broadcasting, Gray Television, ION Media Networks, the NBC and Telemundo Television Stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Broadcasting Co. all spearheaded the formation of the alliance. The group is hopeful its membership will grow in the coming weeks.
National broadcast mobile TV providers stoked the fire soon after the coalition was announced by publicly acknowledging their willingness to work with broadcasters to partner on a hybrid that would pair national TV service with local programming delivered directly by broadcast stations. Executives at MediaFLO and DVB-H providers Modeo L.L.C. and HiWire L.L.C. all acknowledge that local programming would be a valuable complement to their national program offerings.
“I just want more capabilities to go into the phone,” Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said after indicating his interest in helping broadcasters with their initiative. “That really drives our core business.”
Modeo President Michael Ramke said “local is critical” and that he’s “absolutely ” willing to help deliver local TV programming alongside Modeo’s service. “We, again, recognize that local is a compelling component of live TV service,” he said. “I really do view it as more complementary.”
Ramke added that it would be much easier for companies like his to take their plans to a national conglomerate of broadcast stations rather than pursuing each market individually. “It probably makes sense for us to partner with a particular one or two,” he said.
“Local television news is the No. 1 way people get their news. The ability to get that type of content on the mobile phone is going to be very important,” said Sam Matheny, GM of News Over Wireless.
“There’s been so much hype around these new network solutions, the broadcasters are looking around saying ‘hey, what about us?’ ” Ramke said. “The business folks that I’ve talked to . acknowledged that it’s going to be a process” to define standards.
In the meantime, content providers have no choice but to continue formatting their programming for a variety of platforms so they can reach as many eyeballs as possible. With no industrywide standard, the development and adoption of mobile TV will continue to be cumbersome for studios, said Rob Zitter, executive VP of technology at HBO. “It’s extremely expensive to deal with all the diverse formats,” he said.
Most everyone agrees that the next step in linear television will be in finding a hybrid model that enables a more comprehensive field of programming that viewers are already long used to.
“You can’t really separate the two issues. It’s really a programming and a technology component,” said Larry Gitlin, VP of business operations at Handheld Entertainment. “The major studios aren’t quite jumping in yet . there are still a lot of concerns about how that is going to affect their affiliates.”
Once the technology improves, business models inevitably will fall in place, Gitlin added.