[opendtv] Mobile phone TV in Australia
- From: "Ciril Kosorok" <kosorok@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 10:58:28 +1000
Is that a TV in your pocket?
10 June, 2006
Sydney Morning Herald newspaper
Icon Magazine insert
SOURCE:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/wireless--broadband/is-that-a-tv-in-your-pocket/2006/06/07/1149359817524.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap3
The Italians can watch a digital broadcast of the World Cup on their mobile
phones, and the big telcos hope viewers elsewhere will take note, writes Simon
Tsang.
The next time you find yourself at a bus stop trying to think of someone to
send an SMS to, imagine being able to whip out your mobile phone to watch
high-resolution digital television.
In some parts of the world, that's already a reality and it won't be long
before we receive broadcast TV directly to mobiles in Australia.
Twenty-five years ago, unless you were at home or in the office, you were
practically unreachable. Today, the device that has solved that problem, the
mobile phone, is selling by the hundreds of millions a year worldwide.
Dr David Steel, vice-president of marketing for digital media, Samsung
Electronics Korea, argues that our appetite for the latest handset features
will help spark a revolution in mobile TV.
"Look at the TV market," he says. "There are only two places in your life you
can watch TV. One is at home and one is, maybe if you're lucky, in your office.
"That's incredible. TV is the video - the sight - that connects us with all of
the news, weather, sports and entertainment and there are only two places in
your life that you can get them. Clearly, [the market] is ripe for a mobile TV
service.
"I can think of a lot of scenarios. You wake up in the morning, you don't have
time to watch the news before you leave home, just watch it on a mobile device."
Electronics giants such as Samsung, LG and Nokia (www.mobiletv.nokia.com) are
banding together with TV content producers to make mobile TV commonplace. They
are being joined by telecommunications companies including Telstra, Qualcomm
and 3 Italia.
They are outlaying significant investments to make the revolution a reality,
including the trial and rollout of networks and handsets that support digital
TV broadcasts. If their vision comes true, each one of us will be carrying a TV
in our pocket wherever we go.
We already have TV-style services streamed to mobile phones. Big Brother, BBC
News, ABC Kids and Fox Sports are just some of the programs or "channels"
delivered to 3G mobile phones around Australia.
For now, the quality of mobile TV content in Australia is limited by the
bandwidth of mobile networks. Because the videos are downloaded in a manner
similar to the way computers take downloads from the internet, most streaming
content is charged per-view or as a monthly subscription. The video quality
using this method is blurry compared to regular analog TV coverage. However,
there are already signs pointing to broadcast-style services as the future of
mobile TV.
In Australia, there have been trials of a digital broadcast technology called
DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld), which works in a similar way to
regular terrestrial digital TV (DVB-T) but is designed specifically for
portable devices. As such, it doesn't have the same bandwidth issues that
afflict the mobile network.
Broadcast Australia, in conjunction with Telstra and Microsoft, ran a trial of
DVB-H during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The broadcast of Games events
around the venue looked impressively crisp on handsets and a cut above the
content delivered via 3G mobile networks.
DVB-H can be integrated into wireless devices such as PDAs and mobiles, so you
get the best of both worlds. If you happen to be in Italy during the World Cup,
you'll be able to see first-hand how well DVB-H works if you find a friend with
3 Italia's new Walk TV service.
Hutchison's 3 Italia is the first in the world with a commercial DVB-H TV
broadcast to mobile handsets. Just in time for the cup, 3 Italia's Walk TV
channels will broadcast the 64 matches, giving us a glimpse of what's possible
in Australia if we ever get a similar kind of service. The mobile media
provider announced a "TuaTV" subscription that includes as much TV as you want
to watch with an hour's worth of voice calls and a 1GB data download for 49
euros a month. Currently, the only two handsets with the service are Samsung's
SGH-P910 and the LG U900.
Foxtel corporate affairs manager Rebecca Melkman hints at the possibility of
integrating DVB-H into its coming iQ2go, a portable device that will let
viewers watch live TV and record programs. However, the pay TV company is
tight-lipped about when iQ2go will be released in Australia. Foxtel is
considering the type of 3G mobiles with integrated DVB-H - similar to those
from 3 Italia - as a future delivery platform for its content services, says
Melkman.
"[DVB-H] is something that Foxtel is very interested in," she says. "We're also
looking at the interaction between 3G technology and DVB-H. For example, you
might be watching a recipe on the Lifestyle Channel and then use the 3G
functionality to order that recipe. Then you can take the ingredients list and
the recipe to the supermarket with you, go home and cook it."
DVB-H is one of four competing mobile TV digital broadcasting technologies. 3
UK is testing another system called MBMS (multimedia broadcast and multicast
service), which requires only minor modifications to the 3G network and doesn't
have the digital spectrum allocation issues facing DVB-H.
In South Korea, another mobile TV broadcast technology called DMB (digital
multimedia broadcast) has been developed. It's based on the European broadcast
standard for digital radio and has been up and running in both free-to-air and
subscription modes since late last year. Germany is also kicking off DMB
transmission in time for the World Cup and trials of the technology are running
in China, Britain and France.
In the short term in Australia, however, mobile network speeds will get a huge
boost with the roll-out of HSDPA (high speed data packet access) starting later
this year, says Jenny Goodridge, marketing manager telecommunications division,
Samsung Electronics.
As a result, network speeds will be up to seven times faster than 3G - and
mobile TV will appear much smoother than current services. The rollout of DVB-H
in Australia depends in part on a decision by the Federal Government to
allocate part of the broadcast spectrum for that purpose.
What's on the small box
Keith O'Brien, Vodafone Australia's (www.vodafone.com.au) head of content, uses
the term "snacking" to describe the kind consumption that goes with mobile TV.
News bulletins, sports highlights and short series called "mobisodes" (a
TV-like series made up of one- to two-minute episodes) are the style of
programs mobile networks deliver to customers today. O'Brien says it's about
"giving people the ability to consume content when they have two or three
minutes to spare waiting for a bus or waiting for a colleague at a bar".
The TV industry is taking the new medium seriously. In April this year, the
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in the US announced a new Emmy
Award category for "programming created specifically for non-traditional
viewing platforms, including computers, mobile phones, iPods, PDAs and similar
devices".
The Emmy finalists in the category this year included 24: Conspiracy (based on
Kiefer Sutherland's hit TV show), It's Jerrytime (an animation about a
40-something single guy) and mtvU Stand In (celebrities as substitute
teachers). You can watch the nominees online at the official Emmy website
(www.emmyonline.org).
Mobile TV provides content producers with plenty of creative and commercial
opportunities they wouldn't otherwise get with free-to-air networks. "If you're
not a known player in this country and you want to go to a free-to-air station
and get a TV show up, you're kidding yourself," says Paul Balguerra, executive
producer of a Melbourne-based mobisode series called Forget the Rules
(www.forgettherules.com.au). Before Forget the Rules, Balguerra's production
company was involved mostly in TV commercials and corporate media, but now he's
convinced mobile and internet video is the way to go.
"We're a small market compared to China, Indonesia, Europe and America,"
Balguerra says. "So we had been looking to move into new content as a strategy
for the business. Also we saw it as being very exciting for content makers
because the usual barriers to entry aren't there."
A local project, called Export Navigator (www.aimia.com.au/navigator), has been
set up as a "research initiative to assist Australian companies developing
portable content for distribution to mobile phones and other handheld devices".
Paul Daly, chairman of Export Navigator, describes it as a dummies' guide for
content producers to understand how to export digital content to overseas
markets. The project is made up of a consortium of companies including Yahoo!7,
Kukan Studio, m.Net Corporation and the Australian Interactive Media Industry
Association (AIMIA).
Daly says mobile content will complement, rather than cannibalise, free-to-air
TV programs.
Last November, Vodafone UK partnered Sky to launch a 20-channel mobile TV
outfit that delivered a combination of simulcast (that is, what you see on
regular TV) as well as special made-for-mobile channels. In addition to the
snack-sized shows, it also has long-form programs that run from 30 minutes to
an hour.
However, O'Brien says the focus in Australia is on "extending the
video-on-demand service to make it richer and more interesting". This includes
a second season of the mobisode adaptation of the 24 TV series, this time with
Keifer Sutherland and the original one-minute clips stretched to two minutes.
Vodafone has also introduced Jamie Oliver's Mobile Kitchen, a collection of
three-minute recipe videos you download to your handset.
3 Mobile (www.three.com.au) divides video into three distinct categories: live
streaming (time-sensitive programs such as CNN News, BBC News and Big Brother);
looped streaming (programs that are continually replayed such as Rage, E!
Entertainment and ABC Kids); and video-on-demand (short clips from channels
such as SKY News and Fox Sports).
Annie Mackin, 3 Mobile's head of content, says mobile services complement
regular TV viewing rather than compete with it. She cites Big Brother as an
example: the fan base and interest are built through free-to-air, then
accompanied by the live video delivered to the mobile phone.
Mobile TV isn't the exclusive domain of phones, however. Digital players such
as the Apple iPod with video and a variety of DivX (a type of compressed
digital video format) playback devices let you watch your favourite shows while
on the road.
In North America, Apple has signed deals to sell popular TV shows such as Lost,
Desperate Housewives and Law & Order: SVU through its iTunes online music
download store for $US1.99 each. Having downloaded a program, customers can
transfer the show to their video-capable iPods and watch it in transit.
The Australian iTunes store has yet to make TV shows available, so its current
video deals are limited to free movie trailers and podcasts, and $3.39 for
music videos and Pixar animated shorts.
Current mobile TV services
3 Mobile TV
http://www.three.com.au
Pay as you go: 50 cents/2 mins.
Monthly subscription.
Live streaming channels: Big Brother Live, $6; CNN Live, $4; BBC World Live,
$4; SKY Racing Live, $7.
Looped programs (made-for-mobile): MTV, $4; E! Entertainment, $4; Cartoon
Network, $4; ABC Kids, $4; Rage, $5.
Vodafone Live
http://www.vodafone.com.au/live
Jamie's Mobile Kitchen, Sunset Hotel, South Park, Love & Hate, 24: Conspiracy,
stand-up comedy, Warner Bros cartoons, Sky News, Fox Sports, Super 14 rugby
content and movie trailers.
Video download, $2.49 a download; mobisodes, from $1.49 each; subscriptions
(SKY News, Fox Sports), $2.99 a month.
Telstra Mobile i-mode
http://www.i-mode.com.au
Video content is charged at 40 cents for 30 seconds. AFL and NRL coverage, ABC
News and Grandstand, BBC News, Sky News, National Nine News, The Weather
Channel and Comedy4U.
Optus Zoo Live TV
http://www.optuszoo.com.au
ABC, CNN International and SBS. Free until December 31 on a capped plan
starting from $49 a month.
Infofile
Mobile phones aren't just useful for watching video, they can be used to
program your digital recorder at home as well. Foxtel has revealed that by the
end of the year, customers will be able to set recording schedules on the iQ
box from a mobile phone or web browser.
Electronic program provider, IceTV (http://www.icetv.com.au), which is involved
in legal action with Channel Nine, recently released just such a service called
PIMP (personal interactive media planner), which works with media centre PCs -
with the promise of Mac and DVR compatibility in coming months.
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