Station Values Unaffected by Mobile Video Prospects
Broadcasters’ mobile video opportunities aren’t altering TV station values - yet, industry officials and analysts said. VHF stations historically have been valued more highly thanks to better propagation signal characteristics. But for reaching handheld devices a UHF broadcast’s shorter wavelength beats VHF. The UHF/VHF price gap has shrunk significantly, but not due to mobile DTV, broker Frank Kalil said. However, new services like mobile TV or digital multicasting might add value, he added: “Right now [digital channels are] not worth a lot of money, but we're only a couple of years away from the day they will be.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
One reason mobile video may not be moving station values: Broadcasters can’t gauge mobile video’s value, so they don’t know whether high-band VHF or UHF will be a better channel location, a former broadcast engineer told us. “There is not agreement about what constitutes the best place going forward into the digital transition,” the source said: “There are no absolutes.”
Some companies are pushing a new video standard that may make it easier to broadcast to mobile devices from TV towers. Earlier this month Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz made the rounds to IEEE, MSTV and the FCC, presenting their Advanced VSB (A-VSB) technology as a possible mobile DTV solution. A- VSB uses a special tracking signal and turbo coding to give digital broadcasts a more robust signal, said Samsung Vp- Govt. Affairs John Godfrey. Samsung is looking to get approval from ATSC by early 2007. Miniaturization of antennas and tuners and power management -- work not part of Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz’s ATSC standards campaign -- would make A-VSB even better suited to mobile video, Samsung has said.
Mobile video aside, a more certain revenue stream for broadcasters will be leasing tower space to those looking to provide mobile service of all sorts, said BIA Vp Mark Fratrik. Companies that won spectrum licenses in the recent AWS auction and those using spectrum freed in the DTV transition will need transmitter sites, he said: “What better place to put it than right back on the broadcast tower?” This applies particularly in urban areas, where it will be harder to build new towers for advanced wireless services, Fratrik said.