Qualcomm’s FLO TV in Alliance Talks with Stations, Says Executive
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Qualcomm’s FLO TV is seeking partnerships with broadcast stations through the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which promotes the ATSC-MH standard for using freed spectrum for free-to-air mobile digital reception of local TV, FLO President Bill Stone said Tuesday: “We should partner with these guys.”
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Stone cautioned that “there’s a whole laundry list of issues” for stations seeking to pursue mobile broadcasting. They include setting up transmission and gaining adequate coverage, getting devices built and distributed, and dealing with the intellectual-property rights of programmers, he said in a keynote at the Streaming Media West conference. FLO will “look to grow and expand our capabilities” in local TV some itself, but ATSC-MH is the main strategic route, Stone said. Efforts with that technology “will help build awareness among people that you can actually” watch TV on the go, he said: “People don’t know.”
More devices for watching FLO TV will come out the next 12 months than the 10 that have become available in the years that the mobile service has been in the works, Stone said. The company will look into USB sticks, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi before choosing the way to bring FLO to devices that don’t have the technology built in, he said: “We're going to look at the way that scales best.” Stone wouldn’t specify when the extension would go commercial.
But a backseat receiver for viewing in cars will be on the market by mid-December, Stone said. The company had previously said only that it would be out this year.
Stone dealt repeatedly with skepticism that consumers will buy specialized handheld TVs of the kind that FLO released Friday. “For the people that want to watch television on the go, the answer is ‘yes.'” He said he saw the proof on a trip to Japan. “They have a whole aisle of these things at the Best Buy-equivalent” in Tokyo, Stone said. FLO has been available on cellphones from AT&T and Verizon Wireless for about $10 a month, he said.
The service must add programming on demand to its scheduled shows, Stone said. “It’s got to be more just to place-shift television,” he said. FLO also must add interactivity, to allow communication among friends and voting and other participation in programming by subscribers, Stone said. The technology can be used much more widely than is realized, including for datacasting and for distributing newspapers, magazines and books in digital form, he said. “These'll be things you'll see coming from FLO.”
Advertising accounts for only about 5 percent of FLO’s revenue and subscription fees the rest, Stone said. “You'll really see the advertising thing take off” as a proportion of the total when subscribers can be served commercials differentiated by their characteristics and preferences, he said.
FLO has international opportunities, Stone said. Many countries have devoted spectrum and various standards to mobile TV, but they lack the business model that his company can supply, he said. Many of the standards, including DVB-H, are struggling, and the Japanese government last week approved FLO as a standard, Stone said.