Broadcast spectrum to be utilized for the new mobile service will come from the three owned-and-operated station groups — Fox, NBC & Telemundo, and ION — and the nine local broadcast groups, which are Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst, Media General, Meredith, Post Newsweek and Raycom. Separately, these nine local broadcast companies formed Pearl Mobile DTV Company LLC as a vehicle for their involvement in the venture.

By aggregating existing broadcast spectrum from its launch partners, the new venture will have the capacity to offer a breadth of mobile video and print content to nearly 150 million U.S. residents. In addition to broadcast spectrum, the partners will commit content, marketing resources and capital to the new venture. The service will employ ATSC-M/H, an open broadcast transmission system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) specifically for mobile devices.

The venture is designed to complement the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband Initiative by giving consumers mobile access to video content while reducing congestion of the nation’s wireless broadband infrastructure. In addition, the service’s mobile content network will have the capacity to deliver local and national time-sensitive emergency information to citizens across the U.S.

Regarding the announcement, Jack Abernethy, Chief Executive Officer of Fox Television Stations, stated: “We are excited about building a platform that makes mobile television universally available and economically viable. This venture is the first step in forging cross-industry and company partnerships to deliver content to consumers.”

“This initiative offers a path for the next generation of video consumption, and will help the FCC in its goal of ensuring efficient and reliable broadband service for US consumers,” said John Wallace, President, NBC Local Media.

“Local broadcasters are the backbone of the U.S. media industry,” said David J. Barrett, President and CEO of Hearst Television Inc. “This sharing of content, broadcast spectrum, marketing resources and capital is unprecedented, and underscores U.S. broadcasters’ commitment to bringing vital local news, weather, and emergency information to increasingly mobile U.S. consumers. This is a critically important initiative that holds great promise for our audiences and the television industry. This is truly the next generation of local television service.”

“This venture takes to the next level the work we embarked upon three years ago with the development of Mobile DTV technology, in anticipation of digital TV capabilities and consumer mobile demand,” said Brandon Burgess, CEO of ION Television.

“Mobile digital television places each of our companies at the center of a consumer transformation, putting us on cell phones, netbooks, DVD players and even in-vehicle entertainment systems,” said David Lougee, President, Gannett Broadcasting, Gannett Co. Inc. “And it’s the consumers who are the big winners. From news and entertainment to emergency information, virtually all U.S. consumers will soon be able to bring their most valuable content with them wherever they go.”

Information regarding a dedicated management team that will focus on securing additional content, spectrum and distribution partnerships for the venture will be made available at a later date.

As a geek who just wants to enjoy gadgets, it can be very hard to understand the complicated spider web of media rights — it’s easily the kind of thing that puts one into an outrage when things like Hulu being pulled from Boxee happen. The problem is of course money, but this one is just too crazy, so we’ll spell it out for you. Lets say a broadcaster pays NBC for the exclusive right to broadcast the network’s signal in the Los Angeles area. Now obviously the exclusivity means that the broadcaster is the only one who can deliver that content in that area. Well evidently just because they paid for the right to broadcast the signal to HDTVs and cable customers, doesn’t necessarily mean they own the rights to broadcast that signal to mobile portable device. Yeah, that’s right, networks want broadcasters to pay extra for that.

The part that makes this really ridiculous is that the older NTSC standard worked just fine on mobile portable devices without any extra licensing fees, but now that we have one type of signal for stationary, and one for mobile, they have to pay more. Gotta love those content creators.

By Ben Drawbaugh posted Feb 27th 2010 4:51PM

Article Source: http://hd.engadget.com/2010/02/27/broadcaster-may-have-to-pay-extra-to-deliver-mobile-dtv/

First, some history: U.S. broadcasters moved to High Definition TV, following a 15-year development of the standard. HDTV took more spectrum–which the broadcasters already had–but allowed users to get HDTV or for the stations to “multi-cast” or split the bigger signal into several stations, serving bigger audiences.

In the past year, 800 U.S. broadcasters formed an Open Mobile Video Coalition to come up with a way of using some of that existing spectrum to split off some of their on-air signal and broadcast it to mobile devices. Lickety-split, they came up and approved a standard for mobile broadcast, the ATSC-MH (the ATSC part stands for Advanced TV Systems Committee, and the MH for mobile handheld). In January, 7 stations began their over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts to mobile. At CES 2010, LG and Samsung among others showed mobile phones and devices embedded with ATSC-MH chips. An estimated 100 TV stations are expected to be broadcasting to mobile by the end of 2010 (so says the ATSC).

Meanwhile, a significant percentage of Americans do not have broadband Internet access. President Obama has made that a priority to extend broadband access to areas of the nation left behind in the digital revolution. To that end, the FCC got the ball rolling in September by inviting comments on the adequacy of available spectrum for broadband deployment.

That was the perfect opening for the wireless industry, whose efforts to be the conduit of ever-more data and content are hobbled by the lack of spectrum. The wireless networks just aren’t robust enough to enable the kind of data-heavy usage that’s been happening since the introduction of the iPhone and other smartphones. With the penetration of smartphones expected to grow exponentially in the next few years, the wireless industry needs more spectrum. And they want it from the broadcasters.

The argument from the wireless industry is that most people watch TV over cable or satellite, making OTA (over-the-air) a decreasingly important means of TV watching.  The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has sided with the wireless industry.

The broadcasters are circling the wagons, saying that the wireless industry needs to get its own spectrum house in order. They, and the National Association of Broadcasters, point out that they just spent billions transitioning to digital television. The next deadline is march 17, when FCC Chair Julius Genachowski must present Congress with a National Broadband Plan.

According to Washington insider/attorney Jim Burger of Dow Lohnes, “the wireless industry has urged the FCC to identify 800 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband.”  “Where is it going to come from?” he asks. “Broadcast? Satellite? FCC Chairman Genachowski acknowledges there are challenges.” Burger also noted that the  “official” meaning of the National Broadband Plan is unknown. The FCC commissioners may not vote on the plan, and a “spectrum inventory” bill from Congress may come later this year.

U.S. broadcasters aren’t waiting for decisions from the FCC and Congress to move ahead with their plan to broadcast mobile content over-the-air. At a gathering of the network’s top technology executives–held at the HPA Tech Retreat–they all affirmed their mobile activities.

CBS vp of engineering & technology Bob Seidel described the iPhone app to watch CBS news, announced by the network’s 13 O&Os, which just won the Global Mobile Award for Best Mobile TV Service. Over the crucial issue of analytics for mobile content, CBS also announced a deal with Rentrak to begin gathering metrics for mobile usage. “But you have to authenticate the audience or you don’t have a business,” Seidel said.

NBC Universal’s Thomas Bause stated that NBC intends to bring its content to all possible screens including mobile. “Mobile broadcasting utilizes existing investment in TV station infrastructure, with a low incremental cost to add,” he said. “It’s a new service for public and new revenue for broadcasters.” And Jerry Butler, director of Interconnection Projects at PBS reported being “very active” in Mobile DTV.

Some pundits believe that in the struggle for dominance, broadcasters are the weak link. At the HPA Tech Retreat, one attendee questioned–only semi-jokingly–if the broadcasters will even be around in five years. Yes, said the broadcasters, but we expect to fight for spectrum every day from here on out.

MobilizedTV will continue the updates on the battle over spectrum.

Author: Debra Kaufman

Article Source: http://www.mobilizedtv.com/the-brewing-battle-over-spectrum