SAN DIEGO, California — Would you be willing to watch TV anytime, anywhere on a mobile device?
A few years back, the idea was to incorporate a TV function on the smartphone to allow TV viewing on the road or anywhere where there is a cellphone signal. The concept has since been broadened to make TV available in portable devices. Honey, they shrunk the TV set to fit in the pocket.
One of these devices that offer pure TV is Qualcomm’s FLO TV personal television, which sells in the United States for around $200 and comes with a monthly subscription fee of around $16.
It has a 3.5-inch touch-screen display and a built-in stand with earphones, and promises five hours’ viewing time before the next battery charge.
The promise of the new live mobile TV concept is attractive enough: No waiting. No streaming. No buffering. There are other reasons: Because breaking news is always breaking, because baseball is often played during the day (when you are out of the house), because celebrity gossip is not to be missed.
The sales pitch can go on, but Mazen Chmaytelli, Business Development, MediaFLO Technologies, said in a presentation to international reporters at the MediaFLO headquarters here that with the surge in mobile applications for multimedia smartphones, there is also a greater demand now for device diversity.
“Five years ago, devices were very different from today but in the last three years, everything started moving to advance displays, bigger displays, video on demand, touch screens, eReaders, tablets, smartbooks, etc. All of these devices are not only data-hungry but also expecting rich, advanced video and mobile media capability,” he said.
Consumer expectation is also geared toward personal relevance (what I want), mobility and ubiquitous coverage (where I want it), time shifting schedule (when I want it), and interactivity (how I want it), Chmaytelli added.
The FLO TV coverage rides on a mobile media delivery system built over the FLO air link.
“That air link is a multicast broadcast air link (which broadcasts from one to many) unlike cellular telephony such as 3G or 4G or Wi-Fi where you have a unicast component (transmits signals from one to one),” Chmaytelli explained.
This, he said, is best for delivering video-on-demand shows that people would like to personalize as this provides the right quality, very good picture framing, and good user experience.
“There is always demand for very specific content built on broadcast air link combined with telephony air link such as 3G or Wi-Fi. The MediaFLO air link is an overlay network built from the ground up to deliver broadcast media component to devices, with 3G connectivity for interactivity, social media connectivity and multi-content delivery,” he said.
This best-of-breed broadcast and 3G combination network works by getting content from various content providers, then transmitting the broadcast data to wireless electronic devices across the United States, using 3G as reverse link to deliver multi-content and interactivity.
The FLO TV service, according to Chmaytelli, was first introduced in 2007 at Verizon Wireless and AT&T in 2008. But in 2009 the company started offering direct-to-consumer service via electronic consumer devices such as the stand-alone FLO TV personal TV, the in-vehicle FLO TV auto entertainment system and via Audiovox portable DVD player.
“FLO TV is technology-agnostic from the telephony side of things,” he said. “We have coast-to-coast deployment in the United States and this is the largest mobile TV deployment in the world from a sheer size perspective. We have already 124 major markets turned on covering 211 million POPs and we are still expanding the network.”
FLO TV features full-length live, simulcast and time-shifted programming. Live shows are transmitted real time such as sports, news and concerts, while simulcast shows that air on FLO TV service are broadcast at the same time they air on national TV. Time-shifted shows, on the other hand, air on the FLO TV service at a different time than national TV when it is most convenient for mobile enjoyment.
It takes pride in having broadcast all 64 games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa live last June with replays of early morning games.
Chmaytelli said subscribers watch average of 25 minutes per day, with peak viewership during one-time events such as the inauguration of US President Barack Obama in January 2009 (80 percent viewership), the Michael Jackson Memorial Service in July 2009 (80 percent), Tiger Woods’ press conference last February (64 percent), and the NBA playoff game last March (35 percent).
Obviously the next step for FLO TV is worldwide deployment of the service in the coming years and Chmaytelli disclosed that the company is now talking to operators across the globe for MediaFLO platform to work in other countries.
In the United Kingdom, it already has two successful trials with BskyB (Cambridge and Manchester), while in Japan it has inked a joint venture with KDDI-MediaFLO Japan Planning Inc. and a drive test was already conducted with Toyota Motor Corp. as well as trials in Okinawa and Shimane.
In Taiwan, Qualcomm Inc. and Far EasTone have signed a memorandum of agreement for the service and completed the successful technical trial with CNS and TTV and CDMA/WCDMA operators. Trials have also been conducted in Hong Kong with PCCW and in Kuala Lumpur with Astro and Maxis.