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.”
TV broadcasters are honing their message to policy makers and legislators about the benefits of mobile DTV, as Washington officials hunt for more spectrum to free up for wireless broadband initiatives, industry executives said. As the wireless industry presses for more spectrum, broadcasters are beginning to hold up their burgeoning mobile DTV technology as a new example of how licensees may more efficiently use spectrum and attract new over-the-air viewers.
A new company aimed at helping low-power TV stations switch to DTV in exchange for using some of their spectrum to offer advanced wireless services showed its plans to broadband officials at the FCC last week, an ex parte filing shows. The CTB Group has a technology that will let LPTV stations offer ATSC broadcast and broadband simultaneously on the same channel, President Vern Fotheringham told Blair Levin, coordinator of the FCC’s broadband plan, and John Leibovitz, Wireless Bureau deputy chief. The company said it’s trying to recruit LPTV operators as affiliates and has received letters of intent from about 200 stations.
The FCC wants comment on a request by KNAZ-TV Flagstaff, Ariz., to move its DTV channel from 2 to 22, where it’s now operating under a waiver because it had planned to broadcast digitally on 2, said a Wednesday Media Bureau rulemaking notice. The station, owned by Multimedia Holdings, wants to make the switch because the channel 2 analog antenna it wanted to use for DTV was damaged beyond repair by ice storms. KNAZ said field tests found channel 2 also likely won’t work for the new ATSC mobile DTV standard and only those “on UHF and high VHF frequencies” will work “effectively,” according to the bureau.
Ion introduced mobile DTV service using ATSC M/H technology in Washington and New York City, it said, touting its “triple play” of mobile, HD and multicast broadcast services in the two cities. “The Mobile DTV eco system has now developed to the point that broadcasters are able to launch beta services, and we're beginning to think through consumer and business implementations,” said Brett Jenkins, vice president of technology.
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 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.
Popular with members of Congress, a bill proposing a ban on loud TV commercials got a lukewarm reception from broadcasters at a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday. Friday’s deadline for full-power TV stations to end analog broadcasts has hastened a technology change that can be used across cable, satellite, broadcasting and telco TV, making legislation unnecessary, said Jim Starzynski, principal engineer with NBC Universal.
Five consumer groups sympathize with the Vizio and Westinghouse Digital petition that asks the FCC to regulate DTV patents and punish those that don’t license the technology on reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms, the groups said in joint reply comments filed Wednesday. Americans are overpaying for DTV sets because patent holders extract excessive royalties for licenses, Vizio and Westinghouse have told the commission in a petition filed under the name of a group they call the Coalition United to Terminate Financial Abuses of the Television Transition, CUT FATT.
El Salvador will use the ATSC digital TV standard, the ATSC Forum said.
If stations’ mobile DTV plans are successful, broadcast operations could more closely resemble phone carriers’, said Sinclair CEO David Smith. “Over time as we get into what I would call a gap-filling mode, it’s very conceivable that we'll be just like a telephone operation from the standpoint of receivability,” he said. “That’s kind of the ultimate objective.” The mobile DTV technology, still under consideration as a standard at the ATSC, is continuously improving, Smith said. “The technology is clearly getting better and better and better,” he said. “While it will never be perfect, certainly when it comes time to enter the marketplace, we'll be substantially better than the original cell phone structures when they were put in place.” Sinclair Q1 sales fell 18 percent from a year earlier to $131.3 million. It swung to a $87 million net loss from a $14.9 million profit. Sinclair stock rose 19 percent Thursday.