It seems all the pieces are in place for traditional television broadcasters to tap the perennially hyped mobile video space. Well, all the pieces except the business models, anyway.
An association representing more than 800 U.S. TV stations this week will announce successful broadcast trials of DTV (digital TV) broadcasts to mobile phones, laptops with USB receivers and screens in traveling test vans in Chicago and Denver. Fox Television Station’s WPWR and ION Media Networks’ WCPX are conducting the Chicago test using an antenna atop the Sears Tower, while ION’s KPXC delivered two mobile DTV channels from a tower in Fort Lupton, Colo. – an impressive 25 miles from the test area in Denver.
“The tests we’ve gone through at Fox Chicago has proven to me that the technology works and that there will be great consumer demand,” said Patrick Mullen, VP of WPWR and a member of the OMVC executive committee. Mullen has carried a DTV-enabled device with him around the city since the trial’s launch a year ago, and said he’s been pleased with the reception in urban canyons, on the highway and outside the city.
“It’s a good experience, and that lends itself to a second question: What is the consumer interest?” Mullen continued. “In the real world, we’ve been able to show it to people in multiple situations, and almost universally the first question is, when is it going to be available? The second is, how much is it going to cost?”
Pesky biz models
While the price point for consumers has yet to be determined – mobile DTV is a year or so from commercial availability, after all – the cost for broadcasters could be compelling. While Qualcomm Inc. is spending $800 million to put the finishing touches on its MediaFLO network, DTV requires only a transmitter affixed to an existing tower and can be delivered for a one-time fee of less than $100,000 or annual payments of roughly $10,000, according to the OMVC.
Just as importantly, the technology uses existing spectrum that currently supports analog broadcasts slated to end in February – spectrum that congress gave the nation’s broadcasters so they could convert their transmissions to digital. And unlike cellular networks – which support MobiTV’s service as well as place-shifting offerings from players like Sling Technologies Inc. that allow users to watch home TV broadcasts on their phones – DTV can support an unlimited number of viewers, according to Anne Schelle, who serves as executive director of the OMVC.
“Although MobiTV is a great service, you couldn’t have a substantial amount of users watching the same service at the same time from the same cell site without bringing it down,” Schelle said. “I think even with 4G capabilities operators are going to be spectrum-constrained. They’re not going to be able to do more, nor are they going to want to do it.”
OMVC is hoping to deliver DTV content to all sorts of hardware types, from laptops to gaming consoles to portable media players and in-car video systems. While most carriers won’t rush to embrace a broadcaster-delivered service – which, of course, threaten operator-branded premium offerings – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. said earlier this year that they will pursue DTV. And television stations see the technology as an affordable way to reach on-the-go users with local content that can’t be found on carrier decks, said Brett Jenkins, ION Media’s director of technology strategy and development.
“We own 60 full-power stations throughout the country, and we’ve been actually looking at this mobile opportunity for a long time,” Jenkins professed. I can’t remember in the broadcasting industry seeing so many broadcasters come together and being so supportive of getting a standard done in such a quick time frame. The commitment on the part of the industry folks to enable this as a business option really has been quite remarkable.”
Format formula
But DTV still has some formidable hurdles to overcome in making a business case for mobile video. TV stations and studios increasingly are creating content designed for the large screens that are a must-have for many American consumers, so repurposed video can sometimes seem cramped or even unwatchable on a phone. Also, traditional television formats such as 30-minute sitcoms or hour-long dramas may not play well in mobile, where many users tune to kill a few minutes of down time before moving on.
The most important question, though, is how much consumers are willing to pay for mobile video. While wireless TV still offers an undeniable “gee whiz” appeal, market research firms are ratcheting down their forecasts for the space, and carriers around the world are seeing mixed results – at best – as they deploy premium subscription services. So, like nearly every other kind of content in mobile, it appears ads may be the key.
“I think what OMVC has done very effectively for the industry over the last year and a half is focus on the standardization process, and we’re achieving that goal,” WPWR’s Mullen said. “But certainly we’re getting to the point where individual businesses need to focus on the business models. We’re looking at everything including a free system like they have in Japan, subscription services have to be evaluated, and there’s pay-per-view and on-demand. They all have to be considered.”
