NAB: Mobile TV providers angling to partner with local broadcasters

The Open Mobile Video Coalition's upcoming launch of a free-to-air mobile broadcast TV in Washington could present a huge threat to mobile TV operators and content providers, which depend on subscription revenues from their customers. But it could also be a big opportunity—at least that's the way MobiTV, Sprint and a growing number of small-screen content service providers and equipment suppliers see it.

At the NAB show, MobiTV, Sprint, Sinclair Broadcast Group and PBS demoed a service that combined its premium content platform with the free local DTV services broadcasters plan to offer in Washington this summer and all over the country next year. Called MixTV, the service would layer an on-demand video subscription service on top of the free-to-air programming in any given market—all delivered through an LG Electronics USB dongle containing both a WiMax chip and mobile DTV receiver.

The service is just a prototype now, but it's not difficult to see how the demo could evolve into a multi-service platform that combines a stable of free local TV programming with a TV aggregator's on-demand and premium content and an operator's data channel. "MixTV is just one of the ways where all of the parties can benefit," said Mark Aitken, Sinclair director of advanced technology. "Clearly this is something that all broadcasters are going to do."

OMVC's big launch comes at the end of this year, when 70 broadcasters in 28 markets go live, using their existing TV towers, content and infrastructure to transmit mobile-versions of their standard local and network programming.  But OMVC has selected Washington, DC, as a showcase market, where it will launch its first six stations this summer in an effort to demonstrate the technology's capabilities and raise mobile TV's profile. In addition, four other stations will go live in Atlanta and Seattle to serve as test and validation markets for device manufacturers.

Aitken said the DC trials will seek to get handle on how consumers use the DTV service as well as explore possible incremental revenue streams for the service. Mobile DTV supports detailed audience measurement capabilities when paired with a data back channel, and stations can use that data to tailor their ad campaigns. While that data connection doesn't have to be real-time to supply broadcasters with basic subscriber advantages, an always-on mobile broadband connection would enable numerous services that couldn't be delivered over a broadcast transmission, Aitken said.