Look TV programming to be offered to consumers in mobile environment

Unique Broadband Systems Inc. (UBS) and Look Communications Inc. are planning to deploy a mobile broadband network in the Windsor-Quebec City corridor, with which they will beam Look TV programming to mobile devices. UBS chair and CEO Gerald McGoey tells Canadian Communications Reports that there will be 80 channels of video and more than 100 channels of audio available. The company expects to repurpose existing programming content already available to Look TV’s household subscribers for a mobile environment. "We already have relationships with content providers who are providing that content to Look. So that content that’s provided to our fixed customer base will also be provided to our mobile customer base. However, we believe there will be new programming developed that will be quite unique because it’s on a mobile device," McGoey says. Traffic reports, weather reports, cameras on highways, and other types of content are more valuable in a mobile environment than they are in a fixed environment, he adds. McGoey maintains that there are no program rights problems with making the TV content available to mobile devices. "Our programming from the various aggregators today is given to us whether that’s fixed or mobile. It’s still given to us…We have all the programming in place for fixed applications now and that programming stays in place for mobile. This is no different than having the ability to take your TV and put in your hand and walk around with it," he tells CCR. Whether UBS can pull this off in Canada remains to be seen, but the company does have experience in the mobile video network area, having built a similar type of network in Singapore. In that deployment, 2,000 city buses were outfitted with the equipment and the network has now been operating for about two years. The company is also providing some of the technology being used in similar trials taking place south of the border. McGoey is tightlipped about those trials, however, saying they haven’t yet been announced publicly. "UBS is providing some of the technology being used by some of the trials that are going on in the United States, and we’re going to take that knowledge base and use it with the Look spectrum here in Canada," he says. Trials will begin in the first quarter of next year with network rollout slated for the latter part of 2005. Network deployment will occur in three stages with the first being to build the network in Montreal and in Toronto. Second stage will be to connect the two cities and the third will be extend them from Toronto to Windsor and Montreal to Quebec City.

Look TV programming to be offered to consumers in mobile environment

Broadcast | December 20, 2004

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