Mobile DTV: Would You Believe Xmas 2012?

Patience. Patience. Patience.

By this time, coming home from dinner in Manhattan by train as I did Wednesday night, I figured I would have been able to watch some primetime shows — maybe even an inning or two of the World Series — on my smartphone, all courtesy of my local broadcasters.

But mobile DTV has been a long time coming and from what I can gather it will be another long year, before I and other folks will be able to shop for smartphones, tablets and netbooks with the capability to receive broadcast TV.

It's been four years since broadcasters organized the Open Mobile Video Coalition with the immediate goal of developing a standard that would permit TV stations to broadcast programming to small, mobile devices, even in moving cars.

OMVC accomplished that in fairly short order. Competing systems were distilled into one, and the Advanced Television Systems Committee promptly gave its blessing.

But nothing has been short or quick since.

What I thought would accelerate mobile DTV — the formation of the Mobile Content Venture in April 2010 — has actually slowed it down. Comprising NBC, Fox, Ion Media and nine leading TV stations groups, the MVC had the kind of weight needed to get mobile DTV rolling. Or so I thought.

Instead, it made a couple of strategic decisions that delay things.

First, it decided that mobile DTV had to have conditional access, a whole new layer of complexity that had not been part of anybody's plan before. You had to have a system for encrypting the signals and a back channel for authorizing users.

With such a system, the thinking went, broadcasters would know exactly who was watching what and they could use that information in selling advertising. Just as important, conditional access would allow broadcasters to charge for programming. Some programming would be free, but it all didn't have to be free.

Who can argue with that? It all makes sense, but it all takes time.

From what they're telling me, the system is now in place and the OMVC will soon have a signal on the air in Washington that will allow manufacturers to test their devices.

Another decision was to lose the whip antennas, which we saw on all the first-generation receivers and which drew a lot of criticism and a bit of ridicule from the gadgeteers. Erik Moreno and Salil Dalvi, co-GMs of MCV, realized that consumers were not going to monkey around with tiny and fragile telescoping antennas.

In speech at the B&C conference this week, Moreno said he and Dalvi worked hard to lose the whip antenna and have made progress. "We are currently prototyping a device that will use a very clever approach to the vexing problem," he said.

Now, in keeping with the secrecy that has surrounded so much of the MCV's work, Moreno wouldn't give details. But, he said, if it works, "all broadcasters, including those broadcasters on high VHF frequencies, will be in a position to make their content available to the consumer without a whip antenna."

That would be huge, particularly if the "clever approach" can actually be used in smartphones.

The formation of the MCV also caused a schism in the industry. Those broadcasters not invited into MCV felt rejected and angry. And they were not inclined to sit around and allow MCV to dictate what mobile DTV would be and their role in the providing the service. So they formed their own consortium called the Mobile500 to pursue the business on their own terms.

As I look around on Oct. 21, 2011, I see a lot of missing pieces and lots more for MCV and the Mobile500 to do:

• They have to clear copyright for all the broadcast programming they want to offer on the service.
• They have to convince consumer electronics manufacturers that mobile DTV is worth building into a variety of products. (Because of the long lead time involved in bringing devices to market, this may be the most urgent job.)
• They have to somehow convince the major carriers to OK the inclusion of mobile DTV chips into the smartphones that they subsidize.
• They have to overcome lingering doubts about the broadcasters' big-stick, one signal infrastructure and whether it can deliver good, continuous signals to devices on the move.
• They have to settle on a marketing plan that describes what the service will look like and how it will be distributed.
• They have to make peace and merge, a process that also involves always touchy network-affiliate relations.
• They have to pull CBS and ABC into the business.

"Make no mistake,” Moreno said, “a thriving and viable mobile television business is only assured when all networks and all networks and their affiliates participate."

I don't know exactly how much progress has been made on any of these fronts. As I said, the MCV has been rather stingy with information. But I have heard that ABC has been actively exploring jumping into mobile DTV, holding meetings with members of the MCV and Mobile500.