Just because TV is on cell phones, doesn’t means people want it…yet — Part II

The cell phone and other mobile devices are quickly becoming sought-after platforms for the provision of video and television programming to consumers. But as carriers struggle to convince users to pay for mobile TV, they are also dealing with the convergence quagmire where video is delivered across multiple platforms. When it comes to navigating this new terrain, carriers agree its best to partner with content aggregators to reduce their risk and help pick out the best type of content. It's a partnership that makes the most sense at this nascent stage, as Jeff Leiper, former director of consumer strategies at the Yankee Group in Canada, says users are relying on the carriers for content. There is still a threat consumers may just side-load devices and bypass the operator, so he believes the disintermediation potential is huge for live TV on cell phones. Operators such as Bell Canada and Rogers Wireless, which already offer linear services, are in a position to offer a converged platform to subscribers. "We'll start to see bundle prices start to come out as regulatory changes may take effect, such that you can subscribe to a music package from Bell that will send mobile content to your IPTV box or to your cell phone," he says. As multiple platforms become more integrated in terms of content offerings, Leiper believes more carriers will begin aggregating their own video clips. He says Bell's purchase of Puretracks, an online music downloading site that's in competition with iTunes, was a means for the company to build a backend content management system, allowing them to eventually distribute converged content. There's no schedule or even confirmation this will happen, but if mobile video takes off as anticipated in early 2008, the current partnership deals may change shape. CanWest MediaWorks is already on plan to be its own content aggregator for bbTV, a video service it launched with Research in Motion Ltd. and Sona Mobile on the BlackBerry this summer. Arturo Duran, its president of interactive and business integration, says the ink is already drying on a deal with a major Canadian network to have one-to-two-minute clips appear on the new mobile network. Duran says the adoption of bbTV is on track, but adds more subscribers will come on board once the compression rate improves. Some of the network's adopters can't grasp why it takes about two minutes to download a 90-second clip. Currently, most of the video data in Canada is sent to mobile phones over an EvDO and 1X network, which essentially sets up a one-to-one communication between a tower and the cell phone. EvDO offers an impressive half megabyte of download capability, which DiBlasio says is 10 times faster than what was offered to home PCs in the days of the 56K modem. Meanwhile, competing wireless standards DVB-H and MediaFLO are starting to emerge in trials in Canada and south of the border. These are being tested for live TV on mobile and broadcast a digital signal over old UHF and VHF spectrum. "From a carrier's perspective, it doesn't matter if you've got one customer viewing it or a million. The economics of viewing the video remains the same," says Chris Houston, president of Amp'd Canada. Look Communications is the lone Canadian operator actively in the camp of the emerging technologies as it has a live DVB-H network in Milton ON. While carriers in the US are looking to the UHF and VHF bands for mobile video services, Look uses the 2.5 GHz band. The catch for the mobile phone industry is to make sure non-cellular-based devices, such as iPods and laptop computers, will also be able to receive data with these new standards. So far, cell phones have had an advantage over these other devices of not needing to be tethered to a computer in order to receive data. Still, it's very early days for these standards, and it's too early to pick winners. No one, however, believes the competition from these standards will hinder mobile video's growth. "I think these standards will allow for pricing models that will drive more adoption of the technology," Houston says. It will be a few years before Canada sees more deployment of DVB-H and other technologies. Houston explains that nothing can be done in these bands until a new allocation for the spectrum is set. The CRTC is keeping its nose out of regulating what happens on mobile video and television. Before Amp'd expanded into Canada, Houston says his team was monitoring the role Cancon would play in the mobile environment. And with partners such as MTV, which is restricted by the CRTC to broadcast music videos, he believes the ruling will allow this cable network more breadth of space for broadcasting content on mobile. Not surprisingly, content aggregators and carriers applaud the CRTC's decision to not regulate mobile video, but the industry is prepared for a change. When live TV platforms start to take off on mobile, Raja Khanna, co-foudner and COO at QuickPlay Media believes the CRTC will step in. "There's no difference between live TV on a phone and satellite TV, so it will be regulated," he says.

Just because TV is on cell phones, doesn’t means people want it…yet — Part II

News | January 26, 2007

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