One step closer to mobile TV

More than 330 million mobile users worldwide will own broadcast TV–enabled handsets by 2013, but less than 14% of the users will use mobile pay TV services, according to a Juniper Research report published last month. Considering this, the potential business model and obvious consumer appeal of a free service is another selling point for mobile DTV. The service could easily be free to the end user by relying on the same ads that run on traditional TV. When the service gets enough penetration, a separate ad model could come into play that allows advertisers to really target individual users by using the back channel in the mobile phone or device. According to the OMVC and supporting broadcasters, they are not worried about the business model. The service is such a no-brainer, the business model will work itself out, said Anne Schelle, executive director of the OMVC, at the Chicago demo.

Schelle said to expect consumer products in 2009, with a breadth of prototypes on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in January in Las Vegas. Still, mobile DTV adherents will face many of the same challenges that MediaFLO and other mobile TV providers do. They’ll have to get the handset manufacturers to embed DTV chipsets in a significant amount of their handsets and then persuade carriers to sell and market the service. Yet with the backing of local broadcasters, completion of technical trials in major markets and a business model that offers flexibility and the promise of evolution, the OMVC does have a lot of things going for it. The consortium won’t have a presence at TelcoTV as an exhibitor, but it’s likely its proposed mobile DTV service will be a hot talking point when it comes to mobile TV.