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102 NBS100 The
Wireless Telephone - LookRadio Is The Image on The Cellphone
102NBS100LookRadio&TheCellphone
May 7, 2005 / "As Sprint's manager of multimedia
services, he decides what programs to offer subscribers of
Sprint TV, a $9.99-per-month service that allows wireless
users to watch a range of programs, including the Weather
Channel and a live feed of Fox
News.
• • "None of us work at a network," said
Knoop after hearing the pitch, "but we know this is what
they do."
• • Several years ago, watching television
on your phone seemed futuristic and out of reach. But a
flurry of activity by mobile phone carriers, software
developers and media companies has made the idea a
reality.
• • The technology has already generated
its own lexicon -- "mobisode" and "snack TV." One production
company coined a name based on the format many believe works
best on a miniature screen: Two Minute
Television.
• • With the help of MobiTV, a company
based in Berkeley that prepares television feeds for
transmission over wireless networks, Sprint led the way in
November 2003, offering U.S. customers the first service
that provided live television on their phones, albeit at
sluggish speeds.
• • The following summer, the wireless
provider upgraded to Sprint TV, a faster video-on-demand
service.
• • Cingular, now the nation's largest
wireless company, began carrying MobiTV in late January. A
week later, Verizon Wireless launched its V Cast service, a
regularly updated on-demand menu of news, weather and
entertainment clips powered by its wireless broadband
network.
• • Initially skeptical, broadcast and
cable networks are now rushing to package content for the
mobile phone -- and even developing just-for-mobile
programming.
• • A mobile division of NBC produces as
many as 20 news broadcasts a day for phone viewing, tailored
for a 2-inch screen with anchor close-ups and oversized
graphics. ABC is expanding a 24-hour digital news channel
available on mobile phones, among other platforms. 20th
Century Fox Television has launched several series of
"mobisodes" -- television programs whittled into one-minute
episodes.
• • Nowadays you can watch outtakes of "The
Simple Life," get hourly updates from CNN or let Elmo and
Big Bird entertain your child -- all while waiting at the
doctor's office or standing in line at the grocery
store.
• • The well-known media brands aren't the
only ones getting in on the action. A slew of independent
production companies, such as goTV Networks, has also
cropped up, churning out made-for-mobile television
content.
• • It's the latest evolution of what's
been dubbed the third screen. Already a lucrative platform
for text messages, ring tones and video games, the mobile
phone is poised to become an essential part of television
viewing.
• • The potential is on display in South
Korea and Japan, where mobile phone television has taken
hold. When SK Telecom began streaming live video to phones
in 2001, 1 million South Korean customers signed up in the
first nine months. Carriers now offer next-generation phones
equipped with television transmitters, and this month a
Korean company began satellite mobile TV
service.
• • In the United States, mobile phone
television is still in its infancy. Neither the wireless
carriers nor the media companies, which are bound by
nondisclosure agreements, would say how many Americans
watched TV on their phones. They were also tight-lipped
about the amount of revenue it was generating. Industry
experts estimate that the number of mobile users who
subscribe to a television service hovers in the hundreds of
thousands.
• • However, many analysts expect that
number to grow exponentially in the next several years as
the technology improves and video-enabled phones -- priced
at about $200 to $300 -- become more
affordable.
• • Before they can expand the audience,
mobile phone companies and media providers must unravel a
knot of issues, including the capacity restrictions of the
wireless networks, complicated copyright negotiations and,
most important, the question of what customers
want.
• • But those hurdles haven't stopped the
rush among those who want to be on the edge of the newest
technology.
• • "We don't look at it from the
standpoint of its limitations today," said David Post,
founder of the Two Minute Television Network, a company
based in New York that has four made-for-mobile series in
production, even though it has not signed a distribution
deal with a wireless carrier.
///
ByLines:
Editors Note
More Articles
• Converging
News 202005 / TeleCom Buy Outs and Asset Seizure
Boom
Respectfully
Submitted
Josie
Cory
Publisher/Editor
TVI Magazine
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Reuters, BBC, LA Times, NY Times, VRA's D-Diaries, Industry
Press Releases, They Said It and SmartSearch were used in
compiling and ascertaining this Yes90 news report.
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NBS100 The Wireless Telephone and LookRadio Is The
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