September 11, 2006

Mobile TV Increases its Relevance through Technological Advances

By Robert Liu, TMCnet Executive Editor

The confluence of technology and entertainment was never clearer as solutions providers on Monday leverage the spotlight of a series of industry events to announce advancements in the mobile TV market.

Although mobile TV is still in its infancy, it is still growing at a phenomenal rate, according to Telephia, a provider of consumer research to the communications and new media markets. In its inaugural “Mobile TV Diary Report,” Telephia estimated the mobile TV audience grew 45 percent to 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter of 2006. Total quarterly mobile TV revenues increased 67 percent sequentially to $86 million.

“Mobile TV is the fastest growing wireless data service and marketers are working quickly to figure out how they can capitalize on what has the potential to be the most important new form of media since the advent of the Internet,” said Tamara Gaffney, Director of Product Management, Telephia.

Those sentiments were echoed by unicasting specialist MobiTV, which on Monday announced its intentions to join the WiMAX Forum and will advance mobile TV via the WiMAX standard through a series of “Proof of Concept” trials planned for later this year.

“This is a critical time in the evolution of television and we are steadfast in our commitment to back the best standards for our partners and consumers alike,” said Dr. Phillip Alvelda, CEO, chairman and co-founder of MobiTV, in a prepared statement timed to the CTIA Wireless (News - Alert) show, scheduled for Sept. 12-14, in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, as a further sign of its commitment to mobile TV (and perhaps clear evidence of its rivalry with Qualcomm (News - Alert)), Motorola (News - Alert) used the spotlight of the IBC2006 confab in Amsterdam to announce its support of the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast – Handheld) standard with Nokia (News - Alert) - ), a long-time backer of the multicasting technology that is an alternative to Qualcomm’s MediaFLO.

The announcement comes one month after Motorola stood firm with Intel (News - Alert) and Samsung in the same camp when Sprint Nextel chose WiMAX as the standard for its 4G network over alternative broadband technology Flash-OFDM, also championed by Qualcomm.

Today’s news from the handset manufacturers greatly enhances the timeframes of rolling out mobile TV services . Motorola and Nokia said they will work together to make DVB-based solution trials available for operator partners later this year.

“Operators around the world are evaluating broadcast mobile TV as a compelling new service to offer their subscribers and interoperability will play a key role in bringing these services to market faster,” said Rob Bero, Director of Broadcast Technologies, Motorola.

But operators like British Sky Broadcasting Limited (also known as BSkyB) and Verizon Wireless, have also been testing Qualcomm’s Forward Link Only (FLO) technology for some time and the Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, is still expected to launch mobile TV service later this year.

So what are subscribers watching? In its newest survey, Telephia breaks down the audience ranking as follows:

Source: Telephia

“News and information is the killer app for mobile television. With just a quick flip of their phone it gives consumers instant gratification,” Telephia’s Gaffney concluded.

----

Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.

(source: http://news.tmcnet.com/news/-mobile-tv-wimax-motorola-nokia-/2006/09/11/1877465.htm)