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Coming to your cell phone: Live TVJan 09, 2009 (amNewYork - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Imagine watching the evening news live as you walk home from work, or catching the final out of the World Series while eating dinner at a fancy restaurant. That opportunity will come this year, when networks begin beaming live TV to mobile phones, a coalition of broadcasters announced today at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Mobile Digital Television will be up and running in New York City before the year is out, according to the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which includes the four major networks as well as PBS and the CW. The coalition is working with LG and Samsung, which have developed the technology. Kenwood is planning to market a device that could show live TV in cars. "One can imagine people walking down the street not only looking stupid because they're on their cell phones with the ear pieces but looking stupid because they're bumping into things while watching TV," said Jeff Jarvis, a blogger and former TV critic who writes frequently about technology. Mobile TV would enable people to watch national and local broadcasts live wherever they could get a signal. New devices equipped with the technology would come to market some time this year but it's also likely chips would be sold for existing gadgets like iPhones, according to an OMVC official, who added it is too early to say how much it would cost consumers. "The real thing that's going on is ubiquitous computer activity," Jarvis said. "Phones are now computers and computers are becoming phones." New Yorkers had mixed reactions to the prospect of more TV in more places. "It's getting ridiculous, it's too much technology," said Philip Fusco, 18, of Astoria. "It gets to the point where people should be out doing something, they should be active." William Debord, 21, of East New York, wondered whether it would even appeal to most people. "It's not even practical," said Debord. "On the subways there's no reception anyway" Jarvis said that because so many TV shows are already available for download, the biggest impact would be for news and sports programming, where watching a broadcast as it is happening is of particular value. Waldy Cruz, 22, of Bushwick, agreed. "I could watch sports at work," he said. Marlene Naanes contributed to this story To see more of amNewYork, go to http://www.amny.com. Copyright (c) 2009, amNewYork, New York Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |