Analog TV shutdown kills free cell-phone TV

Aug 17, 2008 13:35 EST
Picture whipping out your cell phone and catching up with "Lost" or "Jeopardy," or watching the local 11 o'clock news, all for free.
You can do this with an imported Chinese phone, but you can't with any phone sold in the U.S. — at least not without monthly charges.
This is one of the reasons the United States is behind several other countries when it comes to making television an attractive option for cell phones. Carrier business models are partly at fault, but choices about TV technology made long ago are largely to blame.
Most phones sold in Japan can tune in to free TV broadcasts, and there are tens of millions of viewers. Cell phones that can tune in to free broadcasts are also available in South Korea, Germany and China.
But only 3 percent of Americans regularly watched video on their cell phones late last year, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That figure includes people who watched short, downloaded clips rather than broadcast TV.
For starters, you can blame the impending shutdown of all full-power analog TV broadcasts on Feb. 17, a deadline set by the government. That Chinese handset, made by ZTE Corp., can only tune in to analog transmissions. Because most of them are going away, there's no real point in selling phones like that in the United States.
China is keeping its analog broadcasts until 2015, six years longer than the U.S., so the phones are viable there. Ironically, the TV reception chip inside comes from a U.S. company, Telegent Systems Inc., based in Sunnyvale, Calif.
The analog U.S. broadcasts are being replaced by digital broadcasts, but there are no phones anywhere that can tune in to those.
When the U.S. digital TV standard was laid down in the early '90s by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, it was optimized for high-definition signals to stationary antennas, according to Mark Richter, president of the industry group.
At the time, cell phones had screens that could display eight digits and nothing else, so little thought was given making the broadcasts work with mobile gadgets.
The Europeans created their digital television standard later and made it a bit more amenable to mobile reception, Richter said. Thus, there are now phones sold in Germany that can receive local digital broadcasts intended for stationary TVs.
Weijie Yun, Telegent's chief executive, said it's theoretically possible to receive U.S. digital terrestrial broadcasts on a phone, but engineers have yet to overcome key technical challenges. For now, Telegent's chips can receive analog broadcasts in most countries of the world, and digital broadcasts in Europe and a few countries outside it.
Because U.S. phones can't receive regular broadcast TV, carriers have had to look to other solutions. Cell-phone technology company Qualcomm Inc. has created a network that broadcasts signals designed for cell phones. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless sell some handsets that can tune in to these broadcasts.
Sprint Nextel Corp. has contracted with another company, MobiTV Inc., which streams lo-fi streaming video over the phones' broadband connections. The fourth national carrier, T-Mobile USA, doesn't have a TV service.
The common denominator for the existing services is that they cost money, limiting their adoption. AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge $15 per month for 10 channels. Sprint bundles MobiTV with some high-end plans and charges $9.99 per month as standalone service.
In-Stat analyst Michelle Abraham estimates that Qualcomm's MediaFLO has 100,000 subscribers. MobiTV has done better, with about 4 million subscribers.
Research director John Barrett at analysis firm Parks Associates points to the fees as a problem, and recommends that operators provide free content.
"A free taste would go a long way in making the consumer case for mobile TV," he wrote in a recent report. "Mobile TV services have taken off in Japan and South Korea, where service is offered free of charge. In Italy, where additional fees have been the norm, usage has been limited."
This month, Toshiba Corp. announced it would end a pay-TV system for handsets because of the popularity of free TV broadcasts.
"That's one of the key barriers," Telegent's Yun said. "Once you start charging consumers, they start getting turned off."
U.S. TV broadcasters are quite eager to provide free broadcasts to cell phones, just as they do to TVs with "rabbit-ear" antennas. They've formed the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which estimates that advertising-financed TV for cell phones could be a $2 billion market.
They want to reach cell phones through another wireless standard the ATSC is creating. It will use regular TV frequencies to reach mobile gadgets, meaning TV stations will be able to broadcast from existing towers.
The goal is to complete the new standard, called ATSC-M/H, by the first quarter of next year, Richter said. That could mean broadcasts will be operational before the end of next year.
It's not completely clear that the technology would be used for free TV — the possibility to charge viewers monthly fees will be built in — but it would be natural for broadcasters to simulcast their regular advertising-financed programming on the mobile channel.
The big question then, Abraham said, is whether broadcasters will be able to persuade carriers to sell TV-capable phones.
AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said it was too early speculate.
"If the answer ends up being 'yes,'" Abraham said, "then that opens up a very large market."

Apple unveils super-thin "Air" laptop, Web movies

15-Jan 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple on Tuesday launched an aluminum-clad laptop just three-quarters of an inch thick, seeking to bring a new computer to market with the same cachet as its iPod and iPhone devices.
Apple also said it would let people rent films over the Web with upgrades to its iTunes online media store, a technological challenge to a movie industry still largely focused on DVDs.
Shares of movie rental firms Netflix and Blockbuster fell sharply in response, and Apple's own stock lost 5.5 percent since the announcements were widely expected and Chief Executive Steve Jobs failed to conjure up any big surprises.
Jobs set a high bar last year by unveiling the iPhone. In addition, many times he ends presentations with by saying, "One more thing..." as a prelude to something unexpected. This year there was none.
Still, Jobs' talents as a showman were on display when he took the stage at the annual Macworld convention in San Francisco to cheers and applause from a few thousand software developers, customers and Apple employees.
He detailed a series of new products and services but saved the laptop, dubbed the MacBook Air, for last, drawing it out of a standard manila envelope to emphasize its slim dimensions.
Jobs said the new notebook was the thinnest available, measuring 0.76 inches at its thickest point and tapering to just 0.16 inches.
Priced from $1,800, the Air bridges the gap between Apple's entry-level and high-end laptops, but analysts voiced concern that it could steal customers away from pricier products.
"It's not really clear how many more incremental buyers you can drive, and there could be some cannibalization," said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research.
MacBook laptops have been one of the company's strongest products, with sales rising 37 percent on the year in the fiscal fourth quarter ended last September.
NEW APPLE USERS SOUGHT
Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of marketing, said the new laptop could appeal to a large swath of customers, including business travelers, those in education and people who wanted a more attractive computer at home.
"The goal overall is to continue to grow the business, so having another product in the line helps to do that. If the mix (of customers) changes a little bit, it doesn't matter as long as we grow everything," Schiller said.
Apple stock has nearly doubled since last year's Macworld, and in late December topped $200 for the first time, driven by market-share gains by Mac computers, continued iPod strength, and enthusiasm over the iPhone, which Jobs said had sold more than 4 million units since its release last June.
Jobs showed off new iPhone features such as displaying a user's location on a map and a way to customize the main screen with icons linking directly to specific parts of a Web site.
"The iPhone is not standing still. We keep making it better and better and better," Jobs said.
But the company has struggled to find a big audience for Apple TV, a product originally designed as a Mac accessory for watching Internet video on a television and unveiled alongside the iPhone a year ago.
"It's not what people wanted. We learned what people wanted was ... movies, movies, movies," Jobs said.
A new version of Apple TV will be able to connect to the Internet directly and download TV shows, movies and music through iTunes. Viewers will be able to choose movies directly from their TVs and Apple said viewers could start watching within seconds if they had a fast Internet connection.
Jobs announced deals with all six major movie studios and several smaller ones to offer movies for rental through iTunes, with new releases costing $3.99 and library titles $2.99. High-definition movies will also be available.
The revamp of Apple TV hardware combined with a broad selection of movies would give Apple an edge over competitors such as Amazon.com Inc , Netflix and Microsoft Corp , American Technology Research's Wu said.
News Corp's 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co , Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros, Viacom Inc's Paramount, General Electric Co's Universal, Sony Corp's Sony Pictures, Lionsgate , MGM and New Line have all signed on to Web rentals, Apple said.
"It's too early to declare that this is going to be a big hit but this is arguably the best offering out there right now," Wu said.
Apple shares fell to $169.04, while mail rental firm Netflix Inc shed 3.2 percent, and top video rental chain Blockbuster Inc dropped nearly 17 percent.
(For more tech news see the Reuters Mediafile blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile)
(Additional reporting by Duncan Martell in San Francisco, Sinead Carew and Kristina Cooke in New York; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Braden Reddall)
Copyright 2008 Reuters

Commentary: Has CMMB already been selected as mobile TV standard in China?

14 Jan 2008

The planned enactment of a national standard for mobile TV broadcasting in China got an apparent set back in November 2007 when the CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) camp supported by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) declined to participate in testing sponsored by China's Standardization Administration aiming to decide which mobile TV standard would be chosen as the national standard.
In addition to CMMB, four other technical standards – DMB-TH (DMB-terrestrial/handheld), T-MMB (terrestrial-mobile multimedia broadcasting), CMB (cell multimedia broadcast) and CDMB (China Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) – are also competing to become the national mobile TV standard in China.
While the Standardization Administration is planning to hold a new round of testing, the CMMB camp has apparently continued to ignore the standard-formation process with plans to install CMMB-compliant networks in 37 major cities in China.
In addition, the CMMB camp also plans to launch a satellite, codenamed CMMB-STAR, in June 2008 that will enable CMMB broadcast signals to reach a total of 324 cities by July.
With regard to the supply chain of CMMB, Beijing-based Innofidei Technology has begun volume production of CMMB core chips for use in handsets, digital video players and PMP (portable multimedia player) devices with total shipments of its CMMB chips to top over five million units in 2008.
For customer-end products, more than 200 makers and vendors, including China-based Lenovo and ZTE as well as leading vendors such as Nokia and Motorola, are also ready to roll out CMMB-compliant solutions. In addition, SARFT is also preparing content, either paid or free-of-charge, for CMMB broadcasts covering the whole nation or regions.
In other words, SARFT is building CMMB networks as a national standard, although it understands that the Standardization Administration is yet to select a standard and that its specifications are also subject to the approval of the administration.
However, since the CMMB plan initiated by SARFT was recently enlisted as one of the major technological development projects in China, entitling it to government subsidies of up to 400 million yuan (US$54.8 million) in three years, it has raised concerns that the CMMB standard might have already been selected as the mobile TV standard in China out of the public eye.

China Datang Mobile Chooses 3G Mobile Interactive Entertainment Platform

10 Dec 2007 US / China : NMS Communications announced that Datang Mobile is using NMS’s 3G Mobile TV platform to develop and deploy 3G mobile entertainment systems for the emerging 3G China mobile market.
Datang Mobile’s 3G Mobile Interactive Entertainment solution allows mobile operators to increase average revenue per user (ARPU), create customer loyalty and offer distinct brand differentiation through truly interactive content. It provides a standard platform for any 3G handset offering a simple user interface which requires minimal “clicks” to access video content. This approach represents a complete revolution from the traditional experience of browsing through WAP menus on mobile phones and can be customized to meet the different needs of telecom operators or content owners.
NMS’s 3G mobile video components, the foundation of Datang Mobile’s 3G Mobile Interactive Entertainment solution, provides operators and network equipment providers such as Datang Mobile the ability to rapidly develop and deploy new, innovative video and voice applications for IP, PSTN and 3G/324M networks and quickly assimilate new features such as 3G streaming video services to 3G based handsets.
“NMS Communications has extensive credentials in providing 3G/324M video technology including its scalability, ease of use and low latency necessary for video playback. Its video expertise helps Datang take the lead within the emerging China 3G mobile network market,” said Mr. Lu Wu, vice president of Datang Mobile.
“We are excited about our new partnership with Datang Mobile for introducing Mobile Entertainment services within China’s 3G Mobile Solution Network,” said Steve Gladstone, president, NMS Communications Platforms division. “We’re pleased that NMS’s leading video technology will contribute to Datang Mobile’s success and look forward to a continuing and profitable partnership.”
About Datang Mobile
Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd (Datang Mobile) registered and established in Beijing on February 8, 2002, is one of the core members of Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group. The company headquarters is in Beijing, with one subsidiary in Shanghai and one branch in Xi’an.

website: http://www.nmscommunications.com.cn/

NMS Communications 100 Crossing BoulevardFramingham, MA 01702-5406USA

China market: Mobile video services to keep growing to 345.75 million yuan in 2010

29 Sept, 2007

The demand for mobile video services in the China market is rapidly on the rise with the total market value estimated to continually increase from 34.60 million yuan (US$4.60 million) in 2006 to 81.37 million yuan in 2007 and further to 345.75 million yuan in 2010, according to China-based consulting company Analysys International.
Currently, 3G.cn, MM2u.cn and Le-TV.com are the top-three providers of mobile video services in China, according to Analysys.

China market: Forecast value of mobile video services, 2007-2010
Market value (yuan million) Y/Y

2007 81.37 135.2%
2008 133.60 64.2%
2009 216.93 62.4%
2010 345.75 59.4%

September 2007, Analysys