Samsung and LG jointly pursue mobile TV: Strange bedfellows see future in mobile broadcasting

Whenever two fierce competitors talk collaboration, people listen.
That’s the case with today’s announcement that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. will jointly pursue a mobile/handheld, digital TV standard for North America’s broadcast TV industry. The two companies had been pursuing competing technologies.
The announcement also reiterated the broadcast television industry’s intent to seek its own, direct path to mobile consumers outside of Qualcomm Inc.’s MediaFLO technology, now adopted by two of four major U.S. wireless carriers.
The two South Korean electronics and appliances giants have an intense domestic rivalry in South Korea and in the United States in many product areas, including cellular handsets. In the U.S., the companies have been highly successful by cooperating with and customizing their handsets for the top-tier carriers.
Thus, when the second- and fourth-largest handset makers in the world (Samsung and LG, respectively) decide to jointly pursue technology that may rival their top customers’ own mobile TV offerings, a potentially disruptive shift is in the offing – though the success of mobile television in the U.S. remains to be established.
Add the fact that Qualcomm, which has signed up AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless to its MediaFLO service for mobile TV, also serves both Samsung and LG with cellphone chips and technology licensing, and the meaning of the buzzword “co-opetition” becomes abundantly clear.
Though today’s joint announcement might be seen as a direct affront to the carriers and to Qualcomm, the diplomacy that accompanies “co-opetition” is likely to blunt any dire public statements from the various parties.
The agreement between LG and Samsung comes after more than a year of shifting in the market for mobile TV technology for broadcasters. Last year the Advanced Television Systems Committee, an international, nonprofit organization that develops or adopts voluntary standards for digital television systems, began reviewing various technology standards for the delivery of digital TV programming and data to mobile, pedestrian and handheld devices via a digital broadcast signal. Among those submitting standards were LG (promoting Mobile-Pedestrian Handheld technology) and Samsung (promoting Advanced-VSB).
Now, it seems, LG and Samsung have agreed to cooperate on the same standard for mobile TV for broadcasters. However, a press release from the two companies outlining their partnership did not specify what standard they will jointly move ahead with. A Samsung representative said the company would not discuss technical specifics.
Interestingly, communications vendor Harris Corp. said it will begin building components for the new LG-Samsung teaming. Harris said the proposed LG and Samsung solution “is based upon elements of the Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld (MPH) technology – developed by Harris, LG Electronics and Zenith – as well as Samsung’s Advanced Vestigial Sideband (A-VSB) system.”
Harris said its mobile TV product would be available by November.
The ATSC is expected to adopt a mobile/handheld DTV standard for the North American market in 2009, following trials by the OMVC, a group of U.S. broadcasters.