FLO to update offering

Qualcomm Inc.’s FLO TV Inc. subsidiary said it plans to expand its mobile television offering later this year with the inclusion of interactive capabilities, pay-per-day and event passes and a time-shifting viewing option.
The company said the interactive feature will allow users to “interact with programming and advertising, allowing customers to click for more information about a show or click to buy an advertised product.” There was no word yet from Qualcomm as to how the actual purchasing of a product would be handled.
The other updates include the pay-per-day passes that allow more pricing flexibility without having to commit to a contract. FLO TV currently charges $15 per month for service, or customers can pre-pay $150 for one year of service or $200 for two years of service. The event pass option will allow customers to pay to watch single events via the service.
The time shifting capability allows users to store live shows on their FLO device and watch them at a later time. This also allows users to watch those stored shows outside of FLO’s coverage area, which Qualcomm recently mentioned covered more than 210 million potential customers in 110 markets.
Qualcomm has spent more than $1 billion building out the FLO network that it’s marketing to carriers as a way to offload high-bandwidth video traffic from their cellular networks. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility both offer mobile TV services using the FLO network, though analysts have noted that adoption has so far been muted with neither carrier announcing subscriber figures. Qualcomm has recently moved beyond the traditional cellular market for the service launching portable devices as well as embedded solutions for the automobiles.
FLO TV currently offers full–length simulcast and time–shifted programming from ABC Mobile, Adult Swim Mobile, CBS, CNBC, CNN Mobile, Comedy Central, Disney Channel, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, MTV, NBC 2Go and Nickelodeon.