CES 2012

Mobile DTV Set For Center Stage At CES

At next week’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, broadcasters will show off the latest developments in mobile DTV, including the app that MetroPCS will be using to market MCV's Dyle-branded service and Mobile500's new external dongle receivers that plug into iPhones and iPads and feature a virtual DVR. Other attractions for broadcasters at the exhibition will be smart connected TVs, OTT developments, voice-driven devices, tablets and ultrabooks.  
By
TVNewsCheck,

News yesterday that broadcaster-owned that MetroPCS, the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier, will market Mobile Content Venture's Dyle-branded mobile DTV service with a new Samsung smart phone, gave mobile DTV prospects a needed boost.

And at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, broadcasters will attempt to build on whatever momentum mobile DTV got from that announcement with demonstrations and further announcements, while also trying to get a handle on the remarkably fast developments in consumer electronics that shape the media environment in which they operate.

Story continues after the ad

Keeping current with the CE technologies is vital, says Albert Cheng, Disney ABC’s EVP of digital media. “In the last few years, 3D seemed to be the push. I thought the focus should have been Internet-connected TVs. This year I’m looking to see if this is finally going to happen.” 

Nielsen’s Scott Brown thinks it will. “The theme at CES this year is likely to be ‘connected everywhere,’ with a strong CE focus on interoperability, mobility, freedom of use and devices that merge — and synchronize — the video experience.”

Broadcasters' mobile DTV activities at CES will be clustered within the Mobile DTV Tech Zone in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

MCV, comprising NBC, Fox and leading station groups, will demo the mobile app that MetroPCS subscribers will have to download in order to register and decrypt the mobile broadcasts of the MCV-member stations. But it will have only a developmental version of the new Samsung smartphone with its "discrete" telescoping antenna.

MCV is now promising to launch its service "later this year" with multiple 24-hour channels containing some Fox and NBC programming along with local programming from participating affiliates and O&Os. And it has promised further announcements at CES involving other pieces of the mobile DTV ecosystem.

MCV is still working to clear mobile rights and cut additional marketing deals with carriers and their associated device makers. But one thing that appears under control in the availability of mobile DTV signals. It now has more than 72 participating stations in 32 markets covering more than half the population of the U.S.

The Mobile500 Alliance, the other mobile DTV venture, whose partners include the Sinclair, Hubbard and Fisher station groups), will unveil in the Tech Zone its own branded mobile receiver, an external dongle that plugs into the data port of an iPhone or iPad.

The dongle and associated app were developed by a trio of international tech partners: The content server, ad placement, service guide and audience measurement comes from Expway. The interface and DVR capability is built by the German firm Elgato, well-known for its Macintosh-based consumer EyeTV products. Custom receiver chips are provided by the Israeli firm Siano Mobile Silicon.

Unlike MCV's Samsung smartphone, the Mobile500 dongle-app combo will feature a virtual DVR, allowing users to record programming for later playback.

While a partnership with a wireless carrier and smartphone vendor is ultimately preferable, “we felt it was a priority to provide our stations with a way to monetize mobile DTV right now,” says Mobile500 Executive Director John Lawson, adding that “high-level talks with a major telecom provider are ongoing.”

This will be the fourth CES at which mobile DTV is more promise than reality. Mobile500’s Lawson attributes the slow pace to the reluctance of private and strategic investors to back a new broadcast-based technology in the present economy, especially following the very public collapse of Qualcomm's Flo TV.

“Now is certainly the time for mobile DTV to take off,” says Nielsen's Brown. “Otherwise, [broadcasters] risk being marginalized by other technologies such as tablets.”

There are other ways for broadcasters to offer mobile video as Fisher Communications will show at CES. Its KOMO News Premium App is intended as an “end-to-end solution for monetizing local news content on mobile for stations who have not yet launched their mobile DTV service,” says Randa Minkarah, Fisher’s SVP of revenue and business development.

Developed by Seattle-based Opanga, the app will allow wireless broadband subscribers to download KOMO news segments and watch them in near real time. KOMO is Fisher's flagship ABC affiliate in Seattle.

Opanga’s Senior VP of Business Development Bob Wise says that a 3-4 minute segment can be downloaded in 5-10 minutes to the phone’s internal memory, after which it can be played back in full HD, without the stuttering pauses that typically plague buffered video streams. The two companies plan to add DVR functionality to a later version and will also release a separate app that allows viewers to download entire newscasts.

The trick is in Opanga's NetRover platform, which monitors both carrier and user activity, says Wise. "We send the video content when the network load is lightest.” (TVNewsCheck readers can download the free beta Android version by clicking here.) Fisher and Mobile500 are exploring ways to combine their respective apps to make the most efficient use of both cellular and mobile DTV bandwidth.

Continued on page 2…
Edit Article

Tags

Comments (7) -

D BP Nickname posted a month ago
|
Dongles? Not sure consumers will go for that. Gigaware tried it with HD Radio and both the products and concept died a quiet death.
PhillyPhlash Nickname posted a month ago
|
Consumers will NOT want to be bothered with downloading news segments -- and for a fee, yet. The whole idea is TV on the go. And that's not on the go. The best mobile TV roll-out scheme would have been POTS -- plain old television service. If the industry were smart, it would concentrate on offering the public devices capable of receiving, free, OTA broadcast stations, live, with NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED-- but with a pay TV channel menu option for those who do register. That would preserve broadcast TV's primacy as the most efficient mass medium. But no, the broadcast segment has allowed mobile TV to be hijacked by pay TV greedsters who are erecting a registration toll booth even for viewers who just want to be able to watch local stations over their mobile device. Free OTA stations could have been the bait to get the public hooked on mobile DTV. Instead, the industry is making it complicated, and the delay has let the broadband segment take the lead. Not smart.
Jayhawk Nickname posted a month ago
|
Phlash, read the story -- there's no fee. Consumers will not be put off by registration. You registered for this site, right? Is it any less free or less valuable? Continuing to ignore the potential for knowing who our viewers are is simply irresponsible. Registration is now expected and routine, and it raises the potential for the industry to finally know its audience. Giving content away for free forever hasn't always been a stunning business model.
PhillyPhlash Nickname posted a month ago
|
I'm sorry, call me an oldtimer, but there is something very creepy about having to register to view free, over the air TV stations. What's next -- registration to receive OTA DTV signals at home? No problem with registration for the pay tier, but for free OTA? It's creepy, corporate Big Brotherism.
Rocker Nickname posted a month ago
|
This is all exciting stuff but one thing is clear - MCV/Dyle and Mobile 500 plans have to converge sooner rather than later or it's going to get confusing...and annoying for audience and the whole peripheral ecosystem of suppliers, OEMs, etc. Good news is, it sounds like they're pretty complementary... like maybe Mobile 500 work fills some gaps in the Dyle approach.
Arthur Greenwald posted a month ago
|
Sooner or later we'll ALL be forced or "incentivized" to register for OTA TV, just as most consumers willingly accept supermarket discount cards that record every purchase and match coupons with buying habits. Broadcast TV will eventually be forced to do this or their ad inventory will be worth much less than competing digital ads that supply advertisers with detailed consumer data. In fact, look for stations to trade access to viewer data as a quid-pro-quo for wireless carriers to allow Mobile DTV chips in their handsets.
PhillyPhlash Nickname posted a month ago
|
If there is no opt out and registration is required to view or read media in this country, then the fascists win. All DTV technology is addressable -- that is, corporations and/or government can and DO control who can receive specific data streams. I know this is true, because MY internet connection is clearly censored, filtered, via algorithm and via real-time interception by cyber "security" personnel under USG contract (Lockheed Martin Information Systems holds the priamary cyber censorship contracts let by military, security and intelligence agencies). These cyber operatives even sabotage the formatting of my blogsite at viclivingston.blogspot.com, shrinking the type, defeating my formatting commands -- perhaps even "black holing" the site via re-direction to "page not found" messages. This fascist censorship already is here. Registration to receive allegedly "free" over the air TV signals only plays into the hands of those already using telecommunications as a tool of ideology- and hate-motivated suppression.

Today's Top Stories

Classifieds

The Market

Symbol Last Change (%)
Nasdaq 2933.17 -15.40 (-0.52%)
NYSE 8094.39 +0.00 (+0.00)
S&P 500 1357.66 -4.55 (-0.33%)
Updated 02/22 7:55p ET Quotes delayed at least 20 mins.
Source: Financial Content

Ratings

Overnights, adults 18-49 for February 21, 2012
  • 1.
    2.9/8
  • 2.
    2.8/7
  • 3.
    2.1/5
  • 4.
    1.7/4
  • 5.
    1.4/4
  • 6.
    0.5/1
Source: Nielsen
Reviews
Opinions
Features
  • Hank Stuever

    Clinton, a four-hour PBS American Experience documentary, is an honest but sometimes tediously predictable exercise in the further Wikipedia-ing and storage-packing of those years. Whether intentional or subliminal, the film conveys the obvious and completely mortal recognition of time's inevitable passage, but not much else.

  • David Knowles

    Nancy Buriski's HBO documentary The Loving Story chronicles the lives of Richard and Mildred Loving, the interracial couple whose court case brought down the last remaining miscegenation laws in the United States. The Loving Story is a perfect time capsule that illuminates the racist past of our country with a uniquely personal and poignant emphasis. It's a film that will continue to be enjoyed whether viewed on Valentine's Day, during Black History Month or any other time of year.

  • Neil Genzlinger

    Smash, NBC’s series about backstage Broadway, comes with New York and Hollywood names off screen (Steven Spielberg, Therese Rebeck) and on (Debra Messing and Brian d’Arcy James). Given that pedigree, you’re expecting to be bowled over by the pilot, but it ends up feeling like a collage of devices from the zillions of previous backstage plays, musicals and movies. However, be patient — Smash gets better as it goes along and by Episode 3 it shows signs of becoming an addictive pleasure along the lines of this season’s Revenge.

  • Lori Rackl

    Pop some Dramamine before watching ABC's new horror series, The River, because the shaky camera work is more likely to make you seasick than scared. You can, however, skip the sleeping pill. The River's two-hour premiere should suffice. Billed as a thriller, the show tries hard to be terrifying and eerie in a Paranormal Activity kind of way. It ends up being hokey and, even worse, boring.

  • Robert Lloyd

    Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, veterans of Fox's sketch comedy MADtv, have a new series of their own, Comedy Central's Key & Peele. It is a genial, at times almost genteel, half-hour in which the pair's obvious niceness shines through even their more pugnacious characters. (Key's version of road rage is to shout, "Selfish!") In a roundabout way, that's the point. The sketches are consistently smart and smartly acted and flow easily from ordinary premises to weird conclusions.

This advertisement will close automatically in  second(s). You will see this ad no more than once a day. Skip ad