Reiter's Mobile TV Report

EU endorses DVB-H as mobile TV standard, but not without objections

The European Commission (EU) on December 29 voted to add the mobile television protocol DVB-H to its list of standards, but not without objections from a few member countries, according to an article in RCR News.

“Following the Council meeting today, DVB-H will be published by the Commission in the list of official EU standards.  As a result, all EU Member States will have to support and encourage the use of DVB-H for the launch of mobile TV services, thus avoiding market fragmentation and allowing economies of scale and accordingly affordable services and devices.

“In addition, the Commission intends to work closely with the Member States in the coming months on the authorisation and licensing regimes, and to look together with the industry at issues such as service layer interoperability and right management applied to mobile TV,” the EU’s press release says.

Objections to mandatory standard

Although DVB-H is the preferred standard the EU wants adopted by all members, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO mobile TV platform will be added as a “non-mandatory” standard for EU member, RCR News notes.

Also, not not every member country is happy with DVB-H being crowed as the sole European mobile TV standard.  Germany, Britain and the Netherlands are objecting to a single standard and “Britain formally voiced its opposition, calling for the listing of all current competing standards, not just DVB-H, RCR News reports.

The Financial Times says it has seen a document prepared for the EU meeting by some EU member countries that asks for DVB-H to be listed as a non-mandatory standard.  One unnamed EU diplomat tells the Financial Times, “We question whether it is sound industrial policy to back one standard. Give some credit to the market.

“Let the market look at this itself and get things going….Even if you then consider it necessary to intervene, why come up with a single standard out of the blue?”

Update (12/2/07):  An article in Business Week, about Qualcomm’s “double whammy” with the EU decision and Verizon Wireless’ decision to use LTE — an evolution of GSM — for its 4G platform, notes that not every European company might use DVB-H, despite the EU’s endorsement.

For example, BSkyB has tested MediaFLO and prefers it to DVB-H, according to an article in “Mobile Entertainment.”  Business Week quotes Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura Securities, says, “The European Commission can say what it likes, but at the end of the day Sky TV will do whatever it wants….

“Sky's decision is very important because the U.K. is the most advanced market in Europe and is likely to go to mass-market mobile TV first.”  If Sky TV opts for MediaFLO, “it could set a precedent,” he says.

TV Guide wants to leverage its products for mobile TV...but how?

TV Guide is trying to figure out how to leverage its products for mobile television, including how to improve the user experience, says Bob Shallow, the vice president and general manager of Gemstar-TV Guide International's mobile entertainment group, in an “E-Commerce Times” article.

Shallow says in the article:

“We provide a robust metadata infrastructure.  We've amassed a library of program titles -- basically, every program that's aired on television dating back to the advent of TV, and film dating back to 1910.

“We have a tremendous database, and we've really learned how to optimize that for the delivery of this information into a guidance experience on various platforms.

“We also have developed a range of TV Guide services.  So, when you think of an on-screen guide, it is actually made up of a variety of parts, and those parts are your basic listings, your program information, plus enhanced features like the ability to set reminders, set recordings, parental controls, user profiles.

“We've created all of these guidance services, and we've really continued to innovate a lot around those services.  That's really important these days when you think about the emerging paradigm in terms of how people are consuming media.”

More information, please

I wish the reporter would have asked Shallow more in-depth questions so the information wouldn’t be so, uh, shallow.  So what is TV Guide going to do with all this information, from a mobile TV standpoint?

He says, “We're trying to figure out how to provide the best user experience so a consumer could go out to various platforms and pull media into a common user experience and -- very simply, with very few clicks -- get from one piece of content that might be housed over here to another piece of content over here.

“Or, once they set up a profile once, have it reflected on various platforms so it's easy to move within their various content environments and still have the best experience.”

What content?  What platforms?  What exactly is he talking about?

The interview, unfortunately, doesn’t say.

Blockbuster CEO watches movies on BlackBerry, talking to handset vendors

James Keyes, the CEO of Blockbuster, has been watching movies on his Research in Motion BlackBerry, and his company has been talking to cellular phone manufacturers about how to offer video for portable devices, according to Reuters.

Speaking during the Reuters Media Summit, Keyes says he is watching movies on a memory card in a BlackBerry, thanks to assistance from Jim Balsillie, the co-CEO of RIM, and a technical expert at Blockbuster who downloaded videos from the company’s Movielink site.  Keyes didn’t discuss any technical details.

When asked whether Blockbuster is talking to cellular phone vendors, Keyes says, “We're talking with virtually all of the major manufacturers about the opportunity to provide greater mobility and convenience.”

Currently, Movielink films may be rented or purchased.  Rented movies are stored on the company’s server for 30 days, and may be watched an unlimited number of times within one 24–hour period.  So as soon as you click “play,” you have 24 hours to watch the movies.

MultiMedia Intelligence says multimedia phones to outsell TVs in 2008

More multimedia phones — more than 300 million — will be sold in 2008 than televisions, according to a report by MultiMedia Intelligence (see below).

MultiMedia Intelligence considers a multimedia handset to comprise a camera of at least one megapixel, MP3 and video capabilities, a 16–bit color screen, QVGA resolution, Java, USB, Bluetooth, WAP and MMS.  This is pretty much the bare minimum, I guess, for “multimedia.”

The company says, “If the definition of a multimedia handset was limited to just phones with an image sensor, MP3 audio support, and video playback, 60% of handsets would have basic multimedia functionality.  By 2011, almost 9 of 10 handsets would qualify.”

Revenues from multimedia phones will be more than $76 billion, the report says.

More touch

“Phones with touch screens were a ‘rounding error’ in the market in 2006.  By 2011, the number of handsets with touch screens will approach 200 million,” MultiMedia Intelligence says.

ROK Entertainment buys 51 percent of Fun Little Movies

ROK Entertainment, that specializes in videos for cellular phones, has purchased 51 percent of Fun Little Movies (see below) that also specializes in videos for cellular phones, according to the press release.

The financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed except that it involves “a combination of cash to be paid in monthly installments through September 2009 and shares in the company,” the release says.

I’ve watched ROK’s free mobile television as well as the Fun Little Movies channel on Sprint phones.  I wasn’t at all impressed with ROK’s free offerings, but the company has a variety of packages, so there’s much more I didn’t watch.

Fun Little Movies has some, uh, fun videos.

Mobile screenwriting

The press release has an interesting note about Frank Chindamo, the president and “Chief Creative Officer” of FLM.  Apparently, Chindamo is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California who teaches “Mobile and Internet Viral Screenwriting and Producing.” 

I’d be interested in taking that course!

Nokia debuts five megapixel N82 with geo-tagging, A-GPS, Xenon flash

Nokia today has debuted a candy bar N82 five megapixel camera phone that includes Assisted GPS (A-GPS), geo-tagging of images, a Xenon flash, recording at 30 frames per second, automatic positioning of screen images to portrait and landscape and WiFi.

Nokia has posted a great collection of videos about the N82, and at least one of the presentations — the first one (see below) — was shot with the new phone.  If you’re interested in the video recording capabilities of cellular phones, you might be especially interested in the first video that was presented by Mark Selby, a vice president of multimedia for Nokia.

As with many multimedia phones, some are designed to emphasize one feature over the others, and imaging is definitely a major selling point for the N82.  Social networking and sharing as well as GPS also will be major features.

I’m swamped with work this week and haven’t posted as much as I’d like.  But if you’re interested in learning more about the N82, check out a more detailed article in my “Camera Phone Report.”

My fourth "Thinkernet" column: Google's Open Handset Alliance and video

CMP has published my fourth “Thinkernet” column on its “Internet Evolution” Web site: “Google and the Open Handset Alliance:  So What About Video?” (see below)

I speculate about whether the Open Handset Alliance’s (OHA) new mobile platform, “Android,” will be good or bad for the mobile video/mobile television business.  My cautiously optimistic speculation is yes, it will be positive.

Three reasons for optimism

With the emphasis on cautious (after all, we’re not slated to see commercially available devices until the second half of next year), I suggest that Android could help the  business because of three reasons:

1.  If the browser is “as good” as computer browsers it would be able to display all types of video formats, unlike many (all?) cellular browsers now.

2.  The OHA’s goal is to promote innovative handsets that could provide a good viewing experience if the devices offer relatively large, relatively high resolution screens, unlike the vast majority of cellular phones.

3.  It is in the interests of some of the members of the OHA, such as Packet Video, Qualcomm and Nvidia, to promote the development of mobile video.

Gotchas

Yes, there are many gotchas, as I discussed in the column.  This certainly isn’t a sure thing. 

The cellular operators and handset manufacturers may do whatever they want with Android devices, including locking them down as tightly as Verizon Wireless does with its BREW handsets or Apple does with its iPhone.

The Hollywood Reporter compares Finnish mobile TV issues to the writers' strike

Mark Halper in The Hollywood Reporter has published an interesting article about how the Finnish mobile television market has been delayed by content producers asking for mobile TV-related income.  It’s a lesson Halper says should be heeded during the current Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike.

A French media group, Digita, licensed about a dozen television channels for a mobile TV trial in Finland.  The trial was successful and Digita planned to offer the channels to Finnish cellular operators who would package them to mobile TV subscribers, the article says.

The beta testers were surveyed and said they’d pay $14 per month for the service, The Hollywood Reporter says.  Unfortunately, the companies that licensed the programs for the trial said they didn’t have the rights to license them for commercial mobile TV services.

Long delay

As a result, instead of offering many channels, Digita was could provide only one, a music video channel.  “Things turned so downbeat that Nokia even decided at the time to withhold its broadcast-equipped handset from Finnish stores,” the article says.

The article notes that it wasn’t the writers, per se, that complained.  It was the copyright organizations representing writers as well as actors and musicians, although “the principles are the same” as in the WGA strike.

For Finland, the copyright organizations and the broadcasters are negotiating and Digita expects to offer many more channels.  But that launch isn’t slated until the spring, about a year and a half later than Digita expected, The Hollywood Reporter says.

Heed the lesson

“If CBS, NBC and others really believe they are content companies, they should heed the lesson that Digita provides, but not take 18 months to do so. 

“They should start honoring their content creators with a bigger slice of the action, rather than taking goods from them as if writers were some off-the-shelf provider of an all-in-one tonic,” Halper writes.

Infonetics says mobile TV phone sales to reach almost $125 billion by 2010

Mobile mobile television cellular phones and subscribers are expected to boom, according to a report by Infonetics Research.

The company’s press release says sales of mobile video phones worldwide totaled almost $58 billion in 2006 and will reach almost $125 billion by 2010.  The number of mobile video subscribers will increase from “a few million” in 2006 to 58.6 million in 2010, the report, “Mobile Video Phones, Services and Subscribers,” predicts.

The report also predicts “a phenomenal five-year” growth for mobile TV revenues and the continued dominance of the Asia/Pacific region in terms of subscribers.  The release says:

“*  Worldwide service provider revenue from mobile video services is expected to triple from 2006 to 2007, and is forecast to grow at a phenomenal five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 135% through 2010

“*  EMEA was the leading region for mobile video service revenue in 2006, accounting for 42% of the worldwide total; Asia Pacific accounts for 35%, North America for 16%, and CALA for 7%

“*  Asia Pacific will be the regional stronghold of mobile video subscribers through at least 2010, with 53% of the world total in 2006, followed by EMEA at 27%, North America at 13%, and CALA at 6%

“*  Worldwide DVB-H subscribers are projected to grow to 11.7 million by 2010

“*  Worldwide [Media]FLO subscribers are projected to grow to 6M by 2010”

What’s fueling the growth?

Jeff Heynen, the directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics, says the growth is being driven by the switch from analog to digital television networks and the pressure to launch mobile TV services in 2008 in time for the Summer Olympics in Beijing and the European Soccer Championship. 

(No question — major sports events are significant drivers of mobile TV subscriber growth.  The interesting question, however, is whether significant subscribers will continue to watch mobile TV.)

“In addition, governments are very quickly lining up behind various mobile video technologies to help facilitate deployments, with the EU’s endorsement of DVB-H and the Chinese government’s sponsorship of CMMB being the two most visible efforts,” Heynen says.

Of course, you’ll also read conflicting research reports and articles in the press about the poor take up of mobile TV and the lack of demand.  I’m an optimist, or I never would have started this weblog.

My third "Thinkernet" column: The Serendipitous Broadcaster Revolution

CMP has posted my third “Thinkernet” column for its “Internet Evolution” Web site.  I’ve headlined it “The Serendipitous Broadcaster Revolution” (see below) about how anyone with the right cellular phone and software can almost instantly broadcast live streaming video.

 

My column discusses the Nokia Research Center/Reuters “mobile journalism toolkit” that Reuters has been testing to allow reporters to shoot videos (using ComVU’s “PocketCaster” software) and photos and write articles and transmit everything via a Nokia N95 five megapixel camera phone.  The toolkit also includes a Nokia Bluetooth keyboard, a Sony microphone and adapter for the phone, a Nokia tripod for the phone and Power Monkey chargers.

My core point is wireless enables anyone to transmit live video — without having to first save it and post — and that’s revolutionary.