HOME
FORUM
MEETINGS
BLOG RSS TV: Analog switches off, Windows Mobile switches on
Qualcomm subsidiary FLO TV says it will begin expanding its mobile TV service this weekend, since analog TV broadcasts have ceased in the United States. The company also says it is working with OEMs to provide tools and support for integrating receivers into Windows Mobile phones.The FLO TV service broadcasts multiple live and time-shifted digital television channels to phones and other mobile devices using the 716MHz to 712MHz spectrum, equivalent to analog UHF TV Channel 55, according to Qualcomm.
Because of interference in some locations from Channel 55 or adjacent stations, FLO TV was only available in 19 markets around the country, much to Qualcomm’s chagrin. Thanks to the DTV switch, however, fifteen new FLO TV markets will go live this weekend, the company says, including Boston, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco. It’s said service will also be expanded in existing markets such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC.
FLO TV says that by the end of this year, it will have expanded into 39 new markets, offering potential service to more than 200 million U.S. consumers. The company touts its network as “the only dedicated, linear, live mobile TV network, allowing consumers to access broadcast-quality news, sports and entertainment on their mobile devices.”
Unlike the newly deceased analog TV broadcasts, however, FLO TV is not free. Instead, it’s marketed by AT&T as AT&T Mobile TV, and by Verizon as Vcast Mobile TV.
AT&T offers CBS Mobile, CNBC, Comedy Central, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, FOX News, MSNBC, MTV, NBC2Go, Nickelodeon, CNN Mobile and Pix for $15 per month, or the same channels plus unlimited web browsing for $30 per month. Verizon, meanwhile, offers most of the same channels in packages ranging from $13 to $25 per month.
Cost apart, however, a serious limitation is that both carriers offer FLO TV on only a few phones, none of them running Windows Mobile. Verizon nominates Motorola’s Krave KN4 or LG’s Voyager, for example, while AT&T offers the LG VU, LG Invision, or Samsung Eternity.
No FLO TV-compatible Windows phones have been announced. However, the company — whose many smartphone chipsets include the recently unveiled 1.3GHz Snapdragon – announced at the beginning of April “the availability of tools and support for OEMs to integrate FLO TV on Windows Mobile platforms.”
FLO TV cites “industry analysts” as projecting that mobile TV viewership in North America will grow from an estimated 12.7 million users in 2009 to more than 93 million users by 2013. It also quotes a recent report by Nielsen as saying that mobile video viewing grew 52 percent in Q1 2009 compared with the previous year. FLO TV’s in-house market research shows that subscribers watch TV on their phones more than 25 minutes per day, the company adds.