Digital Switchover Stymies Free Mobile TV In US

Would mobile television in the US take off if US consumers didn't have to pay for it?

At the three carriers that offer mobile TV services--AT&T ( NYSE: T), Verizon ( NYSE: VZ), and Sprint--consumers must pay either a monthly fee, or a pay-per-view charge. But there's growing evidence from other countries where mobile TV broadcasts are available for free that it's that little inconvenience of having to pay that prevents consumers from watching, not their short attention spans or the size of mobile phone screens. In Japan, free TV broadcasts killed off the Toshiba-backed paid mobile TV service Moba-Ho! just a few weeks ago, while in Germany, there have been press reports that subscription TV venture Mobile 3.0 will be forced to shut down after operators threw their support behind DVB-T technology that lets users view digital terrestrial TV for free.

So why not give it a whirl in the US? Easier said than done, and especially as the analog shut down approaches, according to an AP feature via IHT.com. Right now it's possible to get free analog TV broadcasts on a mobile from Chinese manufacturer ZTE. But after the US switches over to digital, these phones obviously won't work. Plus, when the US was setting down standards for digital TV in the early 90's, it was optimized for high-definition signals to stationary antennas, since no one had any inkling apparently that people might one day be viewing TV on their phones. (Europe developed their digital TV standards later, and so were able to

US TV broadcasters, meanwhile, would love to be able to broadcast to mobile phones, and have formed an industry alliance the Open Mobile Video Coalition to develop this notion further. They've got their own wireless standard in the works?ATSC-M/H?which would allow broadcasters to use regular TV frequencies to reach mobile gadgets. The goal has been to complete the standard by early next year, which would clear the way for broadcasts. Whether they will be free hasn't yet been determined, however, but the OMVC has already said that ad-funded mobile TV broadcasts could eventually be a $2 billion market.

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