Mobile DTV Venture Aiming For 10+ Chs.

The 12 major TV station groups that announced plans on Tuesday to form a joint venture to pursue the mobile DTV business envision a national service of at least 10 mobile channels and possibly many more.

That's according to Alan Frank, of Post-Newsweek Stations, and Dave Lougee, of Gannett Broadcasting, two of the executives involved in the planned joint venture who were designated as spokesmen.

"It's not going to be 10 channels and it's not going to be 50 channels," Lougee said. "It's going to be somewhere in between."

The number of channels is a function of how much spectrum the joint venture can aggregate in markets from the participating stations as well as from other stations willing to lease spectrum to the venture, Lougee said.

But, in any case, the service will include "the top channels," he said. "Ninety to 95% of what gets viewed will be on this service."

And that's not all, said Frank. It may also include "premium" offerings and others not yet envisioned, he said. Once the venture's national mobile distribution platform is in place, he said, new services will be developed for it just as new apps are developed for the iPhone.

In addition to Post-Newsweek and Gannett, the joint venture will include NBC, Fox, Ion Media, Belo, Cox Media Group, Scripps, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith and Raycom Media.

All have agreed to contribute "cash, spectrum, content and marketing" to the venture, Frank said. "This is an unprecedented coalition."

Tuesday's announcement of the joint venture was made on the basis of a memo of understanding, Lougee said. He declined to venture a guess on when it would be finalized, although he said the parties are working "hard and furious" to seal the deal.

News of the joint venture begins moving MDTV out of the realm of standards and trials and into the world of an actual commercial enterprise. However, with much work still to be done, neither Lougee nor Frank would speculate on when a service would be introduced.

According to Lougee and Frank, the joint venture grew out of work the station groups did together on the Open Mobile Video Coalition, a group of broadcasters and technology companies that came together in 2007 to develop a standard that would allow TV stations to broadcast mobile signals and to encourage the manufacture of compatible mobile receivers.

The OMVC has been successful on both fronts. The Advanced Television Systems Committee adopted a mobile DTV standard last fall, and OMVC has showcased a growing array of receivers at press conferences and industry events over the past year or so.

At the NAB Show this week, it hosted a special exhibit filled with MDTV receivers -- everything from smart phones to netbooks.

To gauge consumer interest in the service, the OMVC is planning an extensive trial of the service this spring in Washington. The service will involve nine TV stations in 20 channels.

According to Lougee and Frank, NBC and Fox have agreed to make their programming available to the joint venture. That programming includes broadcast network programming through their affiliates as well as cable networks.

NBC's collection of cable networks includes Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, MSNBC and CNBC. Fox has the Fox News Channel and FX among others.

Nine of the station groups involved in the joint venture -- all but NBC, Fox and Ion -- are participating through a another entity, the Pearl Mobile DTV Co., LLC.

Lougee explained that Pearl was created to simplify the joint venture negotiations. "It's easier to make an agreement with four entities rather than it is with nine."

Lougee also noted that most of the Pearl participants are longtime broadcasters with newspapers and a strong commitment to local news. "We have similar assets and values."

Lougee said that the joint venture is not exclusive and that there will be a way for other broadcasters to participate in their markets. "This is not an in-or-out club at all," he said.

Other broadcasters will be needed if the joint venture intends to serve the entire country.

But by themselves the joint venture groups have a broad footprint with multiple stations in many markets. With its 59 stations, Ion alone reaches 63% of the nation's 115 million TV homes.

The nine groups in Pearl comprise 173 stations in 98 markets.

Frank said the venture anticipates the mobile service would be marketed through wireless telephone carriers, which could charge subscribers an extra fee for the video service or offer it as part of its basic wireless service. In either case, he said, the broadcasters could share in the subscription revenue.

The two broadcasters said the other source of revenue would be the advertising on the mobile platform. Because cellphones are two-way, Frank said, the venture may also be able to develop advanced, targeted forms of advertising.