Reiter's Mobile TV Report

AT&T to offer full length Sony movies for new MediaFLO mobile TV channel

When AT&T launches its Qualcomm MediaFLO mobile television service in May, it will offer an exclusive Sony channel featuring full length movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  AT&T is launching two exclusive channels in addition to the eight channels currently available from Verizon Wireless’ MediaFLO V CAST Mobile TV service.

AT&T hasn’t announced the second of the two exclusive channels.

Under the AT&T deal with Sony Pictures Television, the channel will be called PIX.  The channel will feature movies from Sony companies, including Columbia, TriStar, Screen Gems and Sony Classics, The Hollywood Reporter says.  Movies will include “Bugsy,” “Ghostbusters,” “Memento,” “Philadelphia,” “Karate Kid,” “Layer Cake,” “A League of their Own,” “Kung Fu Hustle,” “Resident Evil,” “In The Line of Fire,” “Groundhog Day,” “Stand By Me,” “Fisher King” and “Roxanne,” Sony says.

Sony doesn’t necessarily expect MediaFLO subscribers to watch entire movies from start to finish, says Eric Berger, vice president of mobile entertainment at Sony Pictures Television.  Berger notes in the article that it’s more likely people who have already seen the entire movie on another screen (movie theater, home TV, etc.) will watch parts of it on their phone.

Viewing habits

It will be very interesting to see how AT&T’s mobile TV subscribers view the Sony channel.  Many analysts believe the future of mobile TV will be with brief, two or three minute clips, rather than longer programs.  AT&T will offer at least two mobile TV phones when the service is launched, including the LG Vu (see below).

Sprint already offers full length movies for one of its extra-cost mobile TV channels.  I’ve always said — and written — that people will watch longer programs on their phones, but it depends on offering the type of handsets that foster longer viewing times.

Sony has actively explored the wireless/portable environment in addition to synergies with other media.  I wrote in “Mobi-lize” about “Afterworld,” a 130–episode animated series that also is shown on television and will be released as a game in July.  Sony is distributing “Afterworld” internationally, and the same company that produced the series is working on another show — that Sony also is exploring for its multiplatform synergies.

AT&T to launch Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV in May

AT&T today says it will offer its long-delayed mobile television service, based on Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, in May, according to CNN.

The service, which was supposed to launch last year, will include the eight “standard” MediaFLO channels plus two additional channels, that AT&T isn’t discussing.  AT&T will offer at least two mobile TV phones, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

AT&T, like Verizon Wireless, which launched MediaFLO service last year, is dependent upon Qualcomm’s network of towers, not existing cellular 3G towers.  When AT&T’s service is available, about 55 MediaFLO markets should be available.

Telecommunications expert Anne Schelle named director of Open Mobile Video Coalition

A long-time telecommunications expert, Anne Schelle, has been named executive director of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, according to the press release.

The Coalition promotes the development of mobile digital television by the traditional TV broadcasters.  The group’s goal is create a mobile TV service transmitted by broadcasters rather than by using cellular networks and their mobile TV protocols.

I knew Anne years ago when she began working at a lobbyist at Telocator Network of America, the first association for the independent (non-phone company) providers of public paging and mobile telephone (then called radiotelephone) services.  Telocator (which later became the Personal Communications Industry Association – PCIA) was the association for consumer mobile communications.  (Check out an old Time article about mobile communications, when I was editor, among other responsibilities, of Telocator magazine.)

Anne’s telecom positions

Since Telocator, Anne has been involved in a variety of telecommunications-related companies.  She was vice president of external relations at American Personal Communications (the second carrier in the country to offer cellular service; I knew the company’s executives very well), co-founder of xDSL Networks for broadband Internet access and president of the telecommunications consulting company Tasman Technologies.

Most recently she was a partner at the consulting company of Actium Advisors.

Good luck Anne in your new position.

More people in 2008 to purchase multimedia cellular phones than TV sets

More people this year will purchase multimedia cellular phones — that can play music and videos and access the Web — than purchase television sets, according to “Mobile Media 2008:  The Third Screen for Entertainment” sold by Research and Markets.  The research report says 300 million people will buy multimedia phones in 2008.

According to the report, Nokia says 25 percent of entertainment on mobile devices will come from online communities.  Currently, 3.3 billion people have cellular phones.

Los Angeles Times examines live cellular streaming; Qik with dying relative

The Los Angeles Times reports about live streaming cellular video.  Although the article focuses on technology entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, I was more interested in the comments from Laura Fitton about how she used Qik when her grandmother was dying.

Fitton, a consultant in public speaking, visited her paternal grandmother, who was dying in Massachusetts at a hospice on Cape Cod.  Her grandmother was given two weeks to live, and Fitton’s father in Florida wasn’t sure whether he should immediately fly to the hospice.

Fitton, who has a Qik feed (see left), aimed her camera phone at her grandmother so her father could see his mother at the hospice.  “It almost gave him a chance to sit with her awhile and start to come to terms with what he had to come and do,” Fitton says in the article.

Her father decided to fly to the Cape and saw his mother the following day.  She died less than a day later.  “’Time was more of the essence than anyone knew,’ Fitton said, and so the video session ‘really made a difference in our lives,’” the Los Angeles Times reports.

The power of personal live streaming

Many techies use their phones to interview other techies, to stream conferences and to show their lunches and dinners.  That’s fine, and there can be a lot of value with that. 

But Fitton’s live streaming dramatically highlights the power of this technology for personal use.  It’s applications like Fitton’s — not one more lame, blurry, noisy party video — that helps to illustrate how live streaming cellular video is revolutionary.

Open Mobile Video Coalition posts slide presentations from NAB Futures Summit

The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) has posted  slide presentations from its meeting during the National Association of Broadcasters' Futures Summit.  It’s well worth reviewing if you care about mobile television.

The 36 slides include presentations from Brandon Burgess, CEO of ION Media Networks and chairman of the OMVC; Kim Conschafter, senior vice president of broadcast stations at Media General and chairman of OMVC’s business advisory group; Sterling Davis, vice president of engineering at Cox Television and chairman of the OMVC’s technical advisory group; and Dan Hsieh, president of MTC and a consultant to the OMVC.

The slides certainly hold more meaning if you understand the dynamics of mobile TV, which can help interpret the slides.  For example, Conschafter posted a slide entitled “Consumers Want More Mobile Television” (see below).

More detail, statistics needed

I didn’t attend the NAB so I don’t know the context for the slide.  But the slide is based on Consumer Electronics Association information for “portable entertainment devices” — now and in the future — from May 2006.  That’s old for the Internet and mobile TV businesses, which are moving so quickly and have experienced so many changes.

Also, the slide shows a 19 percent decrease in listening to music.  I’d certainly want to know the 2008 statistics.

In addition, the slide shows a 30 percent increase in interest in watching television.  Once again, I really would need to see the latest statistics and and methodology.

Comparing mobile TV protocols

Dan Hsieh presented a slide with an outline of the different among the OMVC’s mobile TV protocol and two existing protocols, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO and DVB-H (see below).  It provides useful information, although nothing is clear cut when analyzing wireless protocols.

But look at the slides for yourself.  There’s useful information to get a better understanding of the OMVC’s views, and I’m glad the organization posted the slides.

Steve Garfield provides suggestions about, reasons for live streaming cellular videos

Journalist Steve Garfield, a big proponent of using cellular phones for transmitting live videos, provides advice about how to get started with cellular streaming as well as lots of information about video blogging.

On March 18, Bhaskar Roy, co-founder and vice president of marketing at Qik, posted a video of Garfield discussing live streaming cellular video during a meeting of the New England Press Association (see below).

In addition, Garfield recently wrote in one of his weblogs a brief, basic guide to getting starting streaming cellular videos.  In his “Three Steps to LIVE Mobile Broadcasting,” (see below) Garfield writes that the best handset for streaming cellular video is Nokia’s N95–3.

Best cellular video phone?

He’s quite likely correct.  I have the original version, the N95–1 (I guess the first model would be the “1”) and it has been considered one of the best, if not the best, for shooting cellular videos, streaming or otherwise.

However, courtesy of Nokia I recently received the new Nokia N82, which has a five megapixel camera (like the N95) and a Xenon flash (the N95 has an LCD flash).  Photos with the N82, especially when using a flash, are probably better than the N95’s, and I posted some photos in my new N82 photo album.

I posted only one N82 video — taken at night under poor lighting and when it was raining — but I wouldn’t be surprised if the N82 would take better videos than the N95.  With every generation of Nseries camera phones, Nokia typically enhances the imaging capabilities.  I’ll be posting more videos in the weeks to come.

Garfield writes in his weblog that he began video streaming using ComVU’s software and hosting service (that I also tested months ago).  He stopped using ComVU and is now testing Qik (that seems to be his favorite, so far) but also is testing other services — Flixwagon, Kyte.tv and Bambuser (I’m not familiar with Bambuser).

ComVU, Qik and Flixwagon offer live streaming videos from camera phones.  Kyte.tv has begun to actively develop mobile initiatives, but its live streaming mobile platform is still in the early stages (see below).  “Kyte Mobile Producer” is in private beta for Symbian Series 60 phones.

Video blogging guide

Garfield also has posted a guide to video blogging, that’s composed of — naturally enough — videos (see below).  Garfield and several other writers have developed the guide that has seven chapters, including: “Is Videoblogging News?”, “Ethics and Ownership” and “Vlogs as Citizen Media.”

The chapters are about four to five minutes and seem more for desktop video blogging rather than cellular.  I haven’t watched all of them, but they look useful and professionally edited.

Citizen journalism tools and informing the world about live streaming videos

My latest weekly wireless communications “Thinkernet” column on CMP’s “Internet Evolution” discusses software and services for cellular phones and on the Web for facilitating citizen journalism (see below).  It also poses an interesting question.

How do people know when others are using their cellular phones to stream live videos?  Currently, streaming cellular videos is the province of early adopters — mostly the technology/wireless geeks.  But what happens when millions of people around the world begin streaming live videos from their cellular phones?

More than three billion people have cellular phones.  Of those phones, about one billion are camera phones and a significant percentage can record videos.  Just as billions of photos are being taken with camera phone, so will millions — and then billions — of videos be taken.

How do we know?

As people become familiar with shooting videos, they eventually will become more comfortable taking videos that are streamed live to the Web.  How will we know when videos we want to watch — right now — are being streamed?

One view of the future might be on Mogulus’ home page that features multiple windows of broadcasts (see above).  Mogulus offers free hosting for live broadcasts (that also are archived), although the company doesn’t offer any option for transmitting from a cellular phone.  A variety of companies, though, offer live cellular video streaming services.

But whether the broadcasts are transmitted from a cellular phone or from a computer with a camcorder or video cam, how can we pick out the wheat among the chaff of all the live videos?  As I write in the “Thinkernet” column, companies like Qik, are offering ways, such as via social networking, to alert potential viewers.

Perhaps new, smarter, search engines will be able to quickly detect key words and concepts to alert us.  Perhaps the National Security Administration (see left) could commercialize some of its tools!

iPhone users watch "mobile TV"/mobile video twice as much as smartphone users

M:Metrics says Apple iPhone users watch more than twice as much “mobile TV” and mobile video as users of other smartphones.  The company reports iPhone users watch 30.9 percent compared to 14.2 percent for other smartphone users and a mere 4.6 percent of the cellular market in general (see below).

Before writing more, I should say that M:Metrics’ use of “mobile TV” refers to, I assume, sideloaded content — first downloaded to a computer and then transferred to the iPhone.  The iPhone cannot access over-the-air TV programs, in the sense of specific live and on-demand mobile TV packages offered by MobiTV for Sprint, Verizon Wireless’ V CAST Mobile TV or even AT&T’s own mobile TV offerings.

In a separate category from “watched mobile TV and/or video,” 20.9 percent of iPhone users “watched on-demand video or TV programming” compared to 7 percent of other smartphone users and 1.4 percent of the market, M:Metrics says. 

Delivering on the hype

iPhone users blow away other smartphone customers when using their handsets to access other Internet content, such as news via the browser, Web searching, social networking sites or blogs and listening to music their phone, the research firm says. 

Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at the firm, says in the release, “The iPhone has certainly delivered on its hype.  Beyond a doubt, this device is compelling consumers to interact with the mobile Web, delivering off-the-charts usage from everything to text messaging to mobile video.”

AT&T’s flat rate for “unlimited” use of data is a major factor in the usage patterns.  “Our data shows that once the fear of surprise data charges is eliminated, mobile content consumption increases dramatically, regardless of device,” Donovan says. 

The demographics of iPhone users are similar to other smartphone users, but better educated and making more money than the typical cellular subscriber.  iPhone customers are more likely to be male, 25 years old to 34 years old, have a college degree and earn more than $100,000.

Not so good compared to EU

M:Metrics’ release also included information about use of content and applications in the overall market of the European Union, several countries in Europe and the United States (see below).  Interestingly, the overall market for watching video on phones shows U.S. subscribers are almost at the bottom compared to the EU in general and select European countries.

Overall, U.S. subscribers at the bottom of the heap, 21.9 percent, when it comes to sending or receiving photos or videos.

PacketVideo debuts receiver for sending mobile TV to WiFi phones, media players

PacketVideo (owned by NextWave Wireless) has introduced a small external receiver (see left) that enables WiFi-enabled cellular phones and personal media players to receive mobile television programs in a variety of formats.  PacketVideo showed the device last month during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and shame on me for not seeing it (because I attended the show) or, at least, for not reading the press release.

The broadcast receiver will work with mobile TV protocols DVB-H, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO and TDtv.  It also works via WiMAX (see previous article about NextWave’s mobile TV WiMAX efforts), PacketVideo says.  Nokia Nseries phones, the Apple iPhone and HTC smartphones are compatible with the receiver, the company says.

“PV’s mobile receiver device decodes a digital TV signal and repurposes it for use on the phone, sending it via a wireless signal, such as WiFi, to a playback device.  The receiver uses specific, patented protocols to ensure optimum rendering of the TV signal on the playback device, and provides secure access to premium channels,” the release says.

Questions, questions

As PacketVideo notes, the device enables cellular phone users to have mobile TV without a handset that incorporates a mobile TV chipset.  The receiver uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery. 

However, are consumers willing to carry a receiver just to get mobile TV?  Also, how much will it cost and how well does it perform?  Lots of questions about the financial viability of this product.

For more information, check out PacketVideo’s demonstration on YouTube (see below).

Perhaps I’ll be able to see the receiver and learn more next month when I’m at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference in Las Vegas.