Broadcaster To Create National Mobile TV Network
Brian Platts
The Diffusion Group
4/23/2010

Platts has indicated that broadcasters are aiming to create a national mobile Television network for hand held devices.  The broadcasters involved are members of the Open Mobile Video Coalition and intend to use broadband spectrum to stream video content to mobile devices.  Platts points out that some broadcast television is already being delivered with little success.  But the new model presented here will push content via a ATSC-M/H standard that will stream similar content to that being sent Over the Air to Digital Televisions.

Platts argues that this is a good thing for consumers and will provide them with a new way to get on the go television content.  However, it is bad news for competitors such as FLO TV which broadcasts through AT&T and Verizon.  But at this point FLO TV is a more elegant solution in that it is built in to subscribers phones as an application.  The author points out that users that wish to receive this new OTA service would be required in almost every case to purchase a hardware dongle that would attach to the phone and convert OTA signals to WiFi in order for the phone to accept and display the content.  The implementation of the hardware into the phones will be a wait and see game with mobile hardware manufactures.  “Manufacturers have no interest in adding capabilities that (a) are unlikely to be used, and (b) unnecessarily drive up costs,” states Platts.

Neither the DTV option nor the currently available FLO TV is serving rural communities at this time.  And the author indicates that for the foreseeable future, mobile television will be a perk found only in urban communities.

You can find the article here.