Mobile television is television viewed on a small handheld or mobile device. This includes services provided over mobile phone networks, received free-to-air through terrestrial television stations or via satellite broadcasts. Regular broadcast standards or special mobile TV transmission formats may be used. Additional features include downloading TV programs and podcasts from the Internet and saving programming for later viewing.
According to the Harvard Business Review, the growing adoption of smartphones caused users to watch as much mobile video during the three days of the 2010 Winter Olympics as they watched during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics, a fivefold increase. However, except in South Korea, consumer acceptance of broadcast mobile TV has been limited by a lack of compatible devices.
Early mobile TV receivers were based on older analog television systems. These were the first televisions that could be carried in a coat pocket. The first was the Panasonic IC TV model TR-001, introduced in 1970. The second was sold to the public by Clive Sinclair in January 1977. It’s called Microvision or MTV-1. It had a two-inch (50 mm) CRT screen and was the first television to receive signals in multiple countries. It measured 4.0 inches (100 mm) x 6.25 inches (159 mm) × 1.6 inches (41 mm) and sold for less than £100 in the UK and around $400 in the US. The project took over ten years to develop and was funded by around £1.6 million in British government grants.
In 2002, South Korea was the first country to launch commercial mobile TV over 2G CDMA IS95-C, and 3G (CDMA2000 1X EVDO) networks. In 2005, South Korea became the first country to broadcast satellite mobile TV via DMB (S-DMB) on May 1, and terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) on December 1. South Korea and Japan are developing this sector. Mobile TV service was launched in Hong Kong in March 2006 by operator CSL on a 3G network. BT launched mobile TV in the UK in September 2006, although the service was abandoned less than a year later. Germany had a failed attempt with MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland, who launched their DMB-based service in Germany in June 2006, but ended in April 2008. Also in June 2006, Mobile Operator 3 (part of Hutchison Humpoa) launched their Mobile TV in Italy. service, but unlike Germany’s MFD it was based on the European DVB-H standard. In the US Verizon Wireless and AT&T offered MediaFLO, a subscription service from March 2007 to March 2011.
In the 2010s, specialized mobile TV platforms and protocols were phased out with the rapid deployment of LTE cellular networks and the growing popularity of streaming television over the Internet from modern smartphones.
While MediaFLO uses the TV spectrum and MobiTV uses the cell phone network, “Mobile DTV” (ATSC-M/H) uses the digital TV spectrum.
ION Media Networks has opened a test center at channel 38, which will be used for digital LPTV, which uses a single-frequency network (SFN). In some areas, multiple TV transmitters will be required to cover the entire area. At that time mobile DTV could be used as it would not affect HDTV reception. However, a single standard had to be created.
David Luzzi, president of Gannett Broadcasting, noted that many of those who attended Barack Obama’s inauguration would likely hear him but not see him; If there was new technology, this problem would not exist.
In April 2009, the Open Mobile Video Coalition, comprised of more than 800 broadcast stations, selected four test stations: Gannett’s WATL, ION’s WPXA-TV in Atlanta, Fisher Communications’ KOMO-TV, and Bello Corporation’s KONG-TV in Seattle. WPXA began broadcasting mobile DTV on April 1. Others will begin in May.
Brandon Burgess, chairman and CEO of Ion, said mobile DTV allows stations to “think outside the living room and bring live television and real-time information to consumers wherever they are.” The Advanced Television Systems Committee began work on the Mobile DTV standard in May 2007, and manufacturers and vendors worked quickly to make the new technology a reality.
The technology was expected to be used for opinion polls and even voting. Later in the year, ATSC and the Consumer Electronics Association began identifying products that meet the standard with “MDTV”.
Paul Karpovich, Chairman of the NAB Television Board and President of the Meredith Broadcast Group
“This milestone ushers in a new era of digital television broadcasting, giving local TV stations and networks new opportunities to reach audiences on the go. It will introduce the power of local broadcasting to a new generation of viewers and deliver all-important emergency alerts, to consumers across the country. Local news and other programming.”
“We’re really at a point similar to the initial launch of DTV in 1998. There’s going to be almost more mobile transmitting transmitters than receiving devices on the market, and that’s probably what you’ll see for the next six to nine months,” said Brett Jenkins, vice president of Ion Technologies. Devices will eventually include USB dongles, netbooks, portable DVD players and in-car displays.
White House officials and members of Congress viewed the triple-play concept at an ION demonstration on July 28, 2009 in conjunction with OMVC. Another demonstration took place on October 16, 2009 with journalists, industry executives and broadcasters riding a bus with the prototype device around Washington, DC. Those who will test the devices in the Washington and Baltimore markets in January 2010 are included.