mocoNews - Washington DC's Local Stations To Begin Airing Mobile DTV Broadcasts

Mobile Digital TV (mobile DTV) broadcasts, as promised by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, the industry group of commercial and public broadcasters behind mobile DTV, are beginning to trickle out. The AP reports that local TV stations in Washington D.C. will begin airing mobile TV broadcasts in late summer, which will be available on any mobile device, including cellphones, laptop computers, and in-car entertainment systems, that have a mobile DTV receiver built into them. The five broadcasters include the local affiliates of CBS (NYSE: CBS), NBC, PBC and Ion, and one Fox-owned independent channel. Broadcasts?including the ads that support them?will be identical to the ones shown on television.

Broadcasters have been strong backers of mobile DTV. Not only does it give them a potential revenue source in addition TV and online, it doesn't cost much for broadcasters to put in the infrastructure to allow the mobile broadcasts?around $100,000 according to the OMVC. Of course, there are two things standing in the way.

The most likely mode of viewing or mobile DTV will be cellphones, but that means each and every handset will have to have a mobile DTV receiver. But standing in the way of this are the carriers, which have their own pay mobile TV services?AT&T (NYSE: T), for instance, has MediaFlo?and which control what ends up on the handsets they subsidize. AT&T has said it hasn't ruled out selling phones with the receiver, but that there's got to be something in it for the carrier.

Meanwhile, as the AP reports, its still unclear as to what devices these broadcasts will be available on, though Dell will be showing a proto-type of a small laptop with a receiver built into it. Last week, Raleigh, NC station WRAL said its mobile DTV broadcasts to begin this summer would also be available to all, but then had also wisely teamed up with the city's Capital Area Transit (CAT), to put screens inside local buses to receive the broadcasts. The OMVC has been very careful not to tick off operators, and are probably hoping that by getting the broadcasts out there, consumer demand will swell enough that may give them better negotiating power with the carriers. Otherwise, the local mobile TV ad revenue that the OMVC is eying may not be as big as the $2 billion a year by 2012 it's been touting.

Related

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