This Coby mobile DTV device enables laptops to broadcast live television signals.
If your attention span lulls when you wait in line or sit in an office, you may have a good alternative to keep you entertained in mobile digital television (DTV) services.
Mobile DTV allows live programming, including local news, on a growing number of mobile devices including equipped laptops, handheld TVs and some mobile phones. The service is free and ad-supported but requires that devices be able to accept broadcast signals.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition is pushing to make more devices enabled to follow a trend of mobile DTV’s growth in Asian markets.
Austin’s ABC affiliate KVUE was the first to launch mobile DTV locally in March by working in tandem with Dell Inc. The mobile signal is offered on one of KVUE’s digital subchannels with traffic and web updates, breaking news and the like, and the station is planning to air rebroadcasts of newscasts soon.
LIN Media, owner of 33 nationwide stations, including Austin’s NBC affiliate KXAN, the CW Austin (KNVA) and myAustinTV (KBVO) is also planning to join the mix.
It also happens that Vince Sadusky, LIN’s president and CEO, is also president of the Open Mobile Video Coalition. Sadusky said Austin is a great market for testing new technology because of the tech presence and the ease of gaining early adopters in Central Texas.
Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 is in trials and along with Harris, LG Electronics and Samsung Mobile, the Round Rock-based computer mogul is linked with the OMVC to facilitate more mobile DTV devices.
Tests indicate signal speeds as high as 100 mph, allowing use on car or train rides and a trial conducted last year in Washington, D.C. gave 150 people modified Samsung Moment devices that picked up the region’s 23 mobile DTV signals. Around 200 more people tested the prototype Dell Inspiron Mini 10.
The results showed a 33% increase in TV viewing with local news drawing the largest audiences.
Some carriers such as Sprint Nextel (S) and T-Mobile USA Inc. offer cable TV networks on mobile devices but haven’t committed to local TV broadcast offerings. Carriers will likely need to be the facilitators of DTV because many consumers are not likely to carry around another device.
So far, KVUE has confirmed that viewership on mobile DTV is low, primarily due to a lack of a business model, marketing of the product, and the absence of devices that enable the broadcast service.
Would you like all your dreams to come true? Follow Marc Speir on twitter @truthorcon.
