Soon, over-the-air television just about anywhere you go
 | LG's first mobile digital TV, with an integrated DVD player (DP570MH), will be available later this year for $249. It comes with two sets of earphone jacks so that more than one passenger can watch TV or movies in the back seat of a car, or on a train. |
LG Electronics |
Now that most of us have our digital big-screens TVs, it's time to go the other direction: Mobile digital TV means small is beautiful, and maybe more importantly, ready to go when and where you do.
You may wind up watching it on a 7-inch dedicated screen, like the one LG Electronics will exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show this week. Or, you might do your viewing on a netbook, like the 10.1-inch screen Mini 10 netbook with a built-in mobile DTV receiver that Dell demonstrates Tuesday at CES, which should be available by the holiday season.
There's also a nifty device known as Tivit, already used in Japan and the size of a deck cards, that is as a wireless TV receiver for smartphones with Wi-Fi, such as the iPhone (as well as the iPod Touch) and certain models of BlackBerrys. It will cost around $120, and is due out this spring.Other ways of getting mobile DTV will include USB mobile DTV laptop receivers, or dongles, that plug into laptop computers, much like dongles for wireless mice or flash drives. They should be available this spring, as well, with prices ranging from $90 to $125.
A place in the car
Cars, too, are another place where mobile DTV may find a home, with DVD players already having a back seat presence.
"The automotive industry is extremely interested in this service, because it’s easy for them to add a receiver chip to the screens, and if consumers can get this basic level of service for free, that makes it really easy for manufacturers to implement," said Anne Schell, executive director of the Open Mobile Video Coalition.
Free? Yes. Local TV stations plan to deliver live, digital broadcasts. Will for-pay and on-demand TV be added? Probably, but not at first. The coalition represents owners and operators of more than 800 television stations around the country. During the first quarter of this year, 70 stations plan to be on the air, with more to come.
"While one of the great opportunities is to give consumers the shows they get now, we’re building the standard of the signal in such a way that we can have a return path to be able to allow for targeted advertising, where everybody involved in the ecosystem can really take part in broadcasting in a more innovative way," said Dave Lougee, president of Gannett’s broadcasting division, which has 22 TV stations around the country.
The cost of providing mobile DTV is "relatively small," Lougee said, more of an add-on to the investments that were already made with the nation's transition to digital television last June.
Another avenue for viewers
Within waning broadcast ratings, as more consumers turn to their laptops to watch TV shows on the Web, mobile DTV offers an additional audience for broadcasters who believe consumers will see it as yet one more avenue to watch TV on their own terms.
"Obviously, we have an expectation today that if we’re reading anything that's text-based — an e-mail or a book — we can do that now wherever we are. I think the consumer is going to have the same expectation around their favorite television programming," Lougee said.
Among the cities where mobile DTV initially will be available: Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Dallas.
"I think 2010 will be the year when things really get going, in terms of what the broadcasters are looking to offer," said Michelle Abraham, In-Stat principal analyst who covers mobile television.
For Dell, netbooks with mobile DTV "is a natural progression," as it already offers netbooks with TV tuners, said James Clardy, Dell's technology strategist for mobile consumer products. The company also offers netbooks with TV in Japan, Brazil and China, with receivers that meet those country's technical standards.
"We’re quite happy with the robustness of the mobile DTV signal in the United States, and believe it will catch up to the point that our other global customers are enjoying already. Dell is very committed to mobile TV as a peripheral product."
The mobile DTV receiver in Dell's netbook will be built into the LCD panel, and there will be a small external antenna to use as well.
During CES, several broadcasters will demonstrate mobile DTV, including the News Corp., Sinclair Broadcast Group, Discovery Communication and NBC Universal. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
The capital investment by broadcasters to provide mobile DTV is not onerous, Schell said; they basically need to add what is known as a Mobile DTV exciter, as well as signal encoding equipment, onto already existing transmission systems.
LG Electronics, a co-developer of the Mobile DTV standard, has made the first battery-operated mobile DTV in the United States, the combo TV and DVD player.
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