This is why north-american cell phones don't have TV tuners...

Part of the new capabilities that came with the switch to digital TV broadcasting was the potential to broadcast on special sub-channels designed with mobile devices in mind.

We know that this has not really happened.

It's clear now that the TV broadcasters wanted to used this capability in conjunction with a subscription model, and their dithering as to how to impliment it has happened in conjunction with cell phone makers holding off the inclusion of conventional ATSC tuners in their handsets sold in north america.

But that same dithering hasn't been able to hold over various covert and overt ways to circumvent live-streaming of OTA tv to portable devices (or even stationary PC's and TV's) and Aereo is perhaps the first third party to "institutionalize" this ability (albeit in a convoluted way) once and for all for portable devices.

So what I think is happening is this:

The cellular carriers and TV broadcasters are in a stalemate.

Both want to make money from giving people the ability to watch live TV primarily on their cell phones and to some smaller extent on tablets.

The cellular carriers want TV viewing to happen as part of data-plan usage.

TV broadcasters want to sell subscriptions to "Mobile DTV" channels.

Cellular carriers presumably need license agreements with networks or invidual TV stations to be able to stream OTA to cell phones for a fee, but have obviously not yet been able to hammer out any agreements.

Cellular carriers presumably have a "nuclear" option, which once they use they won't be able to put back into the bottle. This option would see the offering phones with ATSC tuners to customers. Carriers would use this option if the networks and broadcasters made significant inroads in the adoption of their mobile DTV broadcast services.

One item that seems to be a pure technical problem with OTA reception by mobile devices is when users are moving at speed - such as in a car, bus or train. The extent to which those use-cases are significant enough to require a solution is questionable in my opinion.

For more information and background:

=========== Metro PCS sells phone with TV tuner Updated 8/3/2012

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Only about 10 percent of households watch over-the-air TV. Nearly all of the remainder subscribe to cable or satellite services.

There are 120 Mobile DTV stations in the country. In New York, there are four; in Chicago, five. NBC, which is broadcasting the Olympics, is a supporter of Mobile DTV, and local NBC stations are available in many cities.

Dallas-based MetroPCS is the only major U.S. cellphone company to support Mobile DTV. Verizon and AT&T used to sell phones that received subscription-based national channels, but that network was shut down last year for lack of consumer interest.

It's possible to watch live TV on cellphones in several other countries, but it's only become a mainstream phenomenon in South Korea and Japan. Even there, smartphones without TV capabilities, including the iPhone, are crowding out domestic TV-capable phones.

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Mobile television

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In 2005, South Korea became the first country in the world to have mobile TV. It started satellite DMB (S-DMB) and terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) services on May 1 and December 1. Today, South Korea and Japan are at the forefront of this developing sector.

Mobile TV services were launched by the operator CSL during March of

2006 in Hong Kong on the 3G network.

BT in the United Kingdom was the among the first companies outside South Korea to launch Mobile TV in September 2006, although the service was abandoned less than a year later.

The same happened to "MFD Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland", who launched their DMB-based service June 2006 in Germany, and stopped it in April

2008.

Also in June 2006, mobile operator 3 in Italy (part of Hutchison Whampoa) launched their mobile TV service, but opposed to their counterpart in Germany this was based on DVB-H.

Sprint started offering the service in February 2006 and was the first US carrier to offer the service. In the US Verizon Wireless and more recently AT&T are offering the service.

In South Korea, mobile TV is largely divided into satellite DMB (S-DMB) and terrestrial DMB (T-DMB). Although S-DMB initially had more content, T-DMB has gained much wider popularity because it is free and included as a feature in most mobile handsets sold in the country today.

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Japanese Watch Cell Phone TVs Associated Press 04.01.2006

TOKYO -- Digital TV broadcasts for mobile phones equipped with special receivers began in Japan's major urban areas Saturday, following several months of test broadcasts.

But finding new phones in stores proved hard as eager consumers have already snapped up the limited number of handsets on the market. Japan's major mobile carriers say sales are good, but have not disclosed numbers.

Japan's mobile TV service is not the world's first -- South Korea, Britain and several other nations offer a similar service, although with different technologies. Mobile users in some parts of the United States can also tap into digital broadcasts.

But the new service in Japan, which is free, will potentially reach the broadest market yet through the country's terrestrial digital broadcast system, which relays images through the air via TV towers, not satellites.

It also uses broadcasting air waves, rather than an internet connection, to relay streaming video.

Japan's 90 million mobile phone users already play video games, download music files, exchange e-mail, read news, trade stocks, store digital photos and surf the web -- all on tiny handset screens half the size of a business card.

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This is what I don't understand.

There is considerable work and experimentation being done to offer a separate TV broadcast technology to cell phones (separate transmitters, channels, signal format, power, etc) which I really don't see the need for.

There is not enough of an explanation as to why there is a reluctance to put ATSC tuners in cell phones and let them receive the broadcast signals that currently exist in various markets around the world, especially in north america.

The ATSC tuner route does not allow individualized customer billing (just like you can't be billed for watching TV at home through an antenna) but it seems these secondary or side-channel DTV broadcasts might allow that - and that is the desired route for broadcasters and cellphone makers.

Reply to
Home Guy
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Some insight here on how the industry views the consumer, and what the consumer's understand is of "mobile TV".

"consumers want simple access to mobile TV, and the key to mobile TV?s growth is to reinforce the message that the content is free and doesn?t use any carrier data."

?In the past, it?s been a ?gee whiz? sort of thing to get mobile TV on a cellphone,? Dalvi said. ?But consumers see this as an app and not a device.?

Gee whiz - to get TV on a cell phone - and we're 20 years beyond the Sony Watchman?

"it?s still early in the rollout and marketing of mobile TV services and that a possibly critical step in the process ? getting receiver chips installed in cellphones ? will most likely happen at some point.

?We?re in the first inning of this game,? he said. ?I think we?ll see receiver chips in these devices.?

The US is in the first inning, while it's the bottom of the nineth for Asian cell phone users.

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11.14.2013 09:50 AM Mobile DTV Marches On

Sam Matheny, vice president of Capitol Broadcasting, discussed WRAL?s experience with mobile TV.

WASHINGTON?The National Association of Broadcasters and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences teamed up on a presentation on mobile DTV this week. The conversation ranged from the business case for mobile TV to the response that broadcasters are getting from their current experiments with the technology.

The session was kicked off by Rick Kaplan, executive vice president of strategic planning for the NAB, who pointed out that mobile TV is already operating on many broadcast stations and is available across most of the United States. Kaplan introduced the three panelists for the webcast, who each gave a presentation before accepting questions as a group from the local audience and Web viewers.

Rick Ducey, managing director of BIA/Kelsey, a marketing analysis company that focuses on broadcasters and local media, pointed out the obvious: The traditional broadcast model of TV viewing is being disrupted by viewing on a variety of new platforms. However, he dangled a silver lining inside what many perceive as a dark cloud over broadcasters.

?Adding more viewing options creates more overall viewing, and therefore more available video ad opportunities,? he said.

Displaying graphics that showed the current and future fragmentation of the viewing audience, Ducey made the point that broadcasters who step up to mobile broadcasting can create new revenue streams from viewers watching mobile TV.

?TV viewing is being disrupted [by these new distribution channels],? he said, ?but it?s an exciting part of video distribution.?

HIGH QUALITY, SIMPLE ACCESS

Salil Dalvi, co-general manager for the mobile content venture Dyle TV, explained that consumers need to understand that mobile TV is a way to view high-quality content on their mobile devices without eating into their limited mobile data plans. He thinks that consumers want simple access to mobile TV, and the key to mobile TV?s growth is to reinforce the message that the content is free and doesn?t use any carrier data.

?In the past, it?s been a ?gee whiz? sort of thing to get mobile TV on a cellphone,? Dalvi said. ?But consumers see this as an app and not a device.?

Last to speak was Sam Matheny, vice president for Capitol Broadcasting and owner of pioneering TV station WRAL, among others. WRAL has been delivering mobile TV for several years, and has perhaps more experience with mobile TV than any other broadcaster.

?Now is not the time to stand still,? Matheny said. ?Mobile and broadcasting go together.?

WRAL?s experience is that most consumers who have mobile capability enjoy and use it. Their biggest complaints are that there?s not enough content and that the battery life is limited.

Matheny?s bottom line was that mobile video is a $45 billion business today (including wireless data providers) and that number is only going to grow.

?We have the potential go behind the curve if we stand still,? Matheny said.

Wrapping up the presentation, Dalvi pointed out that it?s still early in the rollout and marketing of mobile TV services and that a possibly critical step in the process ? getting receiver chips installed in cellphones ? will most likely happen at some point.

?We?re in the first inning of this game,? he said. ?I think we?ll see receiver chips in these devices.?

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This appears to be an asian cell phone - with NTSC (analog) TV tuner:

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Samsung Moment with Mobile DTV at CES 2010:

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That is an example of ATSC "Mobile TV" tuner capability.

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And check this out:

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FilmOn Air Portable Tuner for iPhone and iPad

Every year that goes by, more people get used to the idea of watching TV content on their mobile devices. Thanks to accessories such as the FilmOn Air Portable Tuner, you can watch Internet TV content on your iPhone or iPad. The provider will start shipping these adapters for free to its subscribers. FilmOn Air has a built-in battery that will last you for 5 hours. Windows and Mac installers are also available for the device. FilmOn will cost you $14.95 a month though.

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They want to "rent" the receiver to you!

See also:

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Reply to
Home Guy

I spent a lot of money on a 47" TV and surround sound. And they want me to spend money to watch TV on a cell phone? Can't speak for others, but they won't make a penny on me.

Fight on, but without me.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

I think you're old enough to remember the first black and white TV's that were the size of a washing machine but had a 5" screen. I remember that our first such set had a massive magnifying lens on the front to enlarge the image. Watching TV on a 5" cellphone screen would be taking us back to the

1950's. I don't wanna go. (-:
Reply to
Robert Green

I guess it depends on how they would propose you pay for it. If you just use some portion of your data mins, then I probably would use it once in a blue moon, if there was some major breaking news story that I wanted to check up on and I wasn't near a TV. Problem with that is I would expect it would suck up mins pretty fast, so that's probably not much of an option. On the other hand, if it's some separate service that you have to pay a monthly fee for, I agree, forget about it.

I can't think of a time I really needed to watch TV on my phone. Whenever there was a big breaking news story, eg 911, the Challenger disaster, etc, I was either at home or someplace else where there was a TV.

Reply to
trader_4
[snip]

Imagine holding one of those heavy, washing-machine size TVs in your hand for hours.

Reply to
Mark Lloyd

If I were a guy who was at work all the time, or traveling and sitting in train and plane waiting rooms, I might want to watch tv on a phone, but as long as I'm living a normal life, I read the paper while on a bus, train, or plane, stare out the window while on a train, and watch tv at home, like a normal person.

Reply to
micky

I don't remember that. My father had money, but waited until they sold

19" or maybe 21" b&w, maybe 1952 or 3 or 4.

What if it included 10 cent ice cream sodas and a 16-year old girlfriend?

Reply to
micky

When the Challenger crashed, may they rest in peace, I was in my car on an expressway in Brooklyn listening to the radio, and I wondered if I'd lost my chance to see the video. That sure wasn't true.

Reply to
micky

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