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DTV Switch Frees Up B’cast Spectrum; Companies Compete to Beam TV to Cell Phones

When the “digital switch” happens later this week - when television stations become required to broadcast via digital rather than analog signals - broadcast spectrum will be freed up, which some companies will use to transmit live television to cell phones and other portable devices, writes the Los Angeles Times.

A number of services hope theirs will be the one consumers flock to: Qualcomm is offering Flo TV, which has been in the works since 2003 and which will double the number of mobile customers it can reach come Friday, while MobiTV provides on-demand video and TV over a carrier’s data network rather than over a TV spectrum.

Flo TV offers 12 channels and is available on 9 cell phone models, to Verizon and AT&T subscribers. It requires a special chip that is not available in most phones. The Flo TV website proclaims: “Watch your favorite shows live on your cell phone. Some shows are on at the same time they’re on regular TV. Others are time–shifted. Think prime time in the daytime. Think late night at lunchtime.”

MobiTV (“live TV, great primetime shows and killer music at your fingertips,” per the website) has more than 40 channels in some areas and operates on most devices without a special chip. MobiTV is choppier than Flo TV, though transmission will become faster as networks switch to 3G - and 4G, as it becomes available.

Transpera Inc. provides a platform for networks including CBS and MTV to deliver ad-supported video to mobile devices.

Then there’s the Open Mobile Video Coalition, which offers free local TV. The coalition represents more than 28 stations groups in the U.S. The Mobile DTV standard lets local TV broadcasters use their digital subchannels, packing them with mobile-friendly programming and data.

It will be a “hefty competitor” to Flo TV and MobiTV, according to Lewis Ward, research manager at research firm IDC.

Analysts expect that mobile users will soon watch significantly more TV on our cell phones, and that it will become mainstream within the next three years.

About 6% of cell phone subscribers, or 13 million people, watched video on their cell phones in the first quarter of 2009 - about 50% more than the same period last year, according to Nielsen Co.