Ad-subsidized mobile video: Where is it OMVC?

Anne Schelle, executive director of the Open Mobile Video Coalition

The Open Mobile Video Coalition comprises more than 800 local TV broadcasters, and is pushing the ATSC mobile DTV standard in the United States. The technology allows local broadcasters to send their existing TV signals to mobile devices including cell phones, and the final version of the group's standard is expected to be approved in the third quarter of this year. The standard supports various functions including push on demand, pay-per-view and other interactive features.

What does mobile DTV cost to deploy? Schelle said the technology sits alongside broadcasters' existing towers and infrastructure, and costs between $75,000 and $150,000 per station to deploy. "It's really just an extension for what they're already doing," she said.

According to a study released last year and commission by the National Association of Broadcasters, mobile DTV technology supports two business opportunities:

• "Opportunities that relate to the traditional role of broadcasters delivering a mass market to advertisers (usually involves no charge to the consumer, but is distributed on a free-to-air basis); and/or
• "Opportunities that diversify the traditional broadcaster revenue base to include subscriptions, transactions, and paid carriage for third parties over the broadcaster's high-speed digital infrastructure."

Thus, mobile DTV technology essentially will push broadcasters' established business model-ad-supported content that is free to the end user-into the mobile realm. Further, broadcasters will also have the option to test premium or pay-per-view offerings.

"The standard allows for any and all of those options," Schelle said.

Interestingly, North Carolina TV station WRAL and the CBC New Media Group launched the first public deployment of mobile DTV just last week. The offering runs in a Capital Area Transit bus and works on hardware from LG and Harris.

However, a major stumbling block to the OMVC's vision is ensuring devices that can receive the mobile DTV signals are available to consumers, which may be difficult considering wireless carriers may not want to subsidize mobile TV gadgets they can't squeeze money from.

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