Cell TV is not a match for sitting on a sofa in front of a big-screen television. Programs downloaded and then played on the tiny screen can be crystal clear, but live broadcasts often flicker and stutter. TV viewing drains phone batteries faster than voice calls. And the prospect of mobile-phone addicts watching TV in restaurants or while driving raises questions of etiquette and safety.
But some early adopters say they are already hooked. Damon Morton, 28, a lawn service worker from Silver Spring, said his new TV-equipped phone is worth his $90-a-month cellular bill.
"I've just fallen in love with this," said Morton, who uses his phone to watch snippets of CNN, Fox News and sports, as well as to organize his schedule and play video games. "It's an all-in one."
For the entertainment industry, mobile phones offer an opportunity, like the Web and video games, to cross-promote TV programs, CDs and movies. Eventually, cell TV might become another way to sell advertising, studio executives said. Mobile TV was a keynote topic at the annual conference of the National Television Programming Executives last week in Las Vegas.
"People waiting in line might watch it, or kids in the back seat of a car, as a quick alternative to the TV," said Jim Samples, executive vice president and general manager for the Time Warner Co.-owned Cartoon Network. "It's about snacks of entertainment."
So the Cartoon Network is developing characters suited for short-form entertainment, Samples said, such as Periwinkle, an animated platypus that stars in two-minute episodes that can be on cell phones, the network's Web site and before the feature film at movie theaters.
Fox's "24: Conspiracy" is a scaled-down version of the popular TV show.
High-price stars like Keifer Sutherland do not appear in episodes of the mobile TV show, which has its own cast and writers. After several months of experimentation adapting shows from 20 production companies for the mobile-phone format, Fox concluded that it had to develop original programming with closer shots and shorter scripts, said Lucy Hood, senior vice president of content for News Corp., who oversees Fox's mobile entertainment group.
News Corp. has also developed two original TV shows, "Sunset Hotel" and "Love & Hate," dramas about life in a trendy hotel and about relationships, to air in weekly episodes. News Corp. has a staff of about 60 people working on mobile-phone programming, Hood said. She declined to discuss production costs for the programs, but she said the company is paid for every subscriber to the cell TV service.
Not all entertainment executives are equally eager to jump into the new industry.
