With more spectrum opened by Friday’s analog TV cutoff, Qualcomm’...
With more spectrum opened by Friday’s analog TV cutoff, Qualcomm’s FLO TV expanded its coverage to new cellphone markets. The proprietary mobile TV network, delivered to cellphones by carriers AT&T and Verizon, will expand into 39 new markets, FLO…
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TV said. The service was to go live immediately on Friday in 15 markets that included Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco, with other markets to follow throughout the year. In addition to adding new markets, immediately upon the over-air analog cutoff FLO TV was to expand its service in existing markets that include Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, the company said. Those additions and expansions couldn’t be confirmed independently at our deadline. With Friday’s analog TV cutoff, FLO TV potentially would be available to an additional 60 million AT&T and Verizon customers. Parent Qualcomm didn’t cite how many subscribers the service now has through AT&T and Verizon. FLO TV’s dedicated service lets cellphone users access broadcast news, sports and entertainment from content owners that include CBS, ESPN, FOX, MTV and NBC. Its cellphone-delivered content mostly is simulcast with the terrestrial TV broadcasts, although there are options for time-shifted reception to some mobile devices. The simulcast service is linear, though -- at least in its current form. “Linear” means that subscribers can’t now review or fast-forward a paused or stopped program, as they can with home PVRs. FLO TV is available through a variety of cellphones offered by AT&T and Verizon, including models from LG and Samsung. Qualcomm also has teamed with Audiovox to deliver vehicular entertainment systems for FLO TV. Qualcomm’s subscription-based TV delivery to cellphones will have competition soon from cost-free, over-air delivery of DTV broadcasts to phones and other portables developed by the Open Mobile Video Coalition. That system uses MPEG- 4/H.264 compression to deliver ATSC broadcasts to actively- moving receivers, like those in cars. The original ATSC system, begun in 1998, uses MPEG-2 compression that was designed for stationary receivers in homes. The new MPEG-4- based broadcast system for mobile reception should be in place later this year. It “piggybacks” on the broadcasters’ MPEG-2 signal. About 70 TV stations with 35 percent coverage of U.S. TV markets are to begin over-air broadcasts to mobile devices this year.