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Flo TV’s future may be uncertain after Qualcomm CEO, Paul Jacobs, recently disclosed the unit was performing poorly despite his firm’s best efforts and that discussions “with a number of partners regarding the future direction of the business,” were occurring, but selling it off completely is not on the cards. Officially anyway.
In a recent interview with Fox business news, president of Flo TV Bill Stone referred to the spectrum being used for Flo as “beachfront property” that remained very valuable to Qualcomm and its shareholders. He also said subscription content models were “a big trend” and a “great business model,” although he hinted that Qualcomm would much rather have partners take over distribution and delivery of that content.
Flo TV uses a 6 MHz chunk of spectrum within the 700 MHz band, on what broadcasters may better know as old channel 55, which Qualcomm has painstakingly refurbished in order to squeeze some 20 channels onto it.
The spectrum may be cellular and downlink-only, but Qualcomm has invested much in its impressive tower network, and won’t be giving it up for a bargain.
“We actually have two businesses at Flo,” said Stone, “one is the technology which is delivering all this cool stuff and the other is the monthly service where you subscribe to it.” In the earnings call where Jacobs expressed his disappointment and attempt to find partners, Stone says his boss was actually referring to the latter rather than the former.
“Right now we’re trying to find partnersor figure out how to make best use of the spectrum,” he said.
“People love to watch TV and video, people are on the go with mobile devices, we bring them both together,” said Stone, obviously still very much attached to his floundering product.
When asked directly whether Qualcomm wanted to offload Flo altogether, the answer appeared to be in the negative, with Stone noting “we have partners right now all over the world that we’re working with to develop Flo so here in the U.S we’re trying to find similar situations with partners delivering content or helping us in distribution or other areas that can make it successful.”
No one can really argue with the fact that Qualcomm has been rather reluctant to become a TV service provider in the first place. Qualcomm is a chipmaker which owns valuable spectrum, so why should it dirty its hands with the actual donkey work?
Then again, if the right bidder came along, at the right price, that “beachfront property” spectrum may soon find its way flowing to another company entirely.
