[opendtv] News: Tuning In Mobile TV--Chinese Style
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:13:57 -0500
http://www.forbes.com/2008/02/27/china-mobile-tv-tech-wireless-cx_ew_0227chinawire.html?partner=alerts
Tuning In Mobile TV--Chinese Style
Elizabeth Woyke 02.27.08, 6:00 PM ET
Less than a generation ago, Chinese villagers crowded around
newspapers pasted to walls in the center of town to read the latest
news. But by this August, millions of Chinese will watch
up-to-the-minute Olympic contests on their own handheld mobile TVs.
Many Chinese can already catch analog television signals on some
handheld devices. The Chinese government, however, intends to use the
Olympics to showcase the next wave of digital mobile TV, based on
standards developed in China.
Huaqi, a Beijing manufacturer of handheld devices, is planning to
build inexpensive, user-friendly portable media players and
navigation devices. Four different models, priced around $300 apiece,
will debut in June, says Guo Hongzhi, Huaqi's general manager of
resource management. Outfitted with 4.3-inch screens, they will also
be able to play music and video and will eventually incorporate
global positioning satellite data and wi-fi.
Some of the nuts-and-bolts technology, however, is coming from
elsewhere. Alon Ironi runs Siano Mobile Silicon, an Israeli firm that
makes the specialty TV receiver chips that receive signals encoded
using the unique Chinese standards. Siano's chips can receive both
satellite and terrestrial signals--an unusual combination that will
eventually make the network more affordable, Ironi predicts. For now,
that's hardly a concern: The Chinese government plans to subsidize
the mobile digital TV service for the first year to whet Chinese
users' enthusiasm for the technology.
"Every handheld device with a screen will have digital TV in a couple
of years," says Ironi. "We are putting emphasis on China, where we
have a few very powerful partners."
The Olympics promise to be a picture-perfect showcase for China's
digital mobile TV service. Work on digital TV has been going on for
several years. Public trials in 35 cities are slated to begin in
April. By the time of the highly anticipated Aug. 8 opening day of
the games, China plans to be broadcasting digital mobile television
to 65 cities throughout the country.
The magnitude of the Chinese mobile market, the largest in the world,
with more than 540 million subscribers, means that the summertime
experiment could turn into big business.
This would also be a boon for mobile TV around the world. Despite
success in countries like Japan, Korea and Italy, which began
broadcasting mobile digital TV as early as 2005, the technology has
yet to take off worldwide.
Mobile TV has big challenges. Receiver chips must be energy-efficient
to preserve battery life--an important consideration in any mobile
device. At the same time, they must be sensitive enough to transform
even weak TV signals into clear images and function in sheltered
places, like garages, and at moderate speeds, such as on trains or in
fast-moving cars.
Clashing standards have slowed adoption. Like many cellular
technologies, mobile TV standards differ by region, forming an
alphabet soup of acronyms: wireless technology company Qualcomm's
MediaFLO in the U.S., DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for
Handhelds) in Europe, T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia
Broadcast) in Korea, and ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital
Broadcasting - Terrestrial) in Japan and Brazil. The standards are
largely incompatible.
That fragmentation extends to business models. There are "free to
air" services, which, like basic TV channels, can be picked up by any
device with the right chip or receiver--no service provider
necessary. Particularly popular in Latin America, the Middle East and
parts of Asia, these channels generally offer the same programs a
home TV would show for free. Then there's the paid model, predominant
in the U.S., in which mobile carriers provide premium TV shows to
subscribers for a fee.
China, not surprisingly, is forging its own path, one that mixes free
and paid access. Its unique standard, CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile
Broadcasting), is digital, based on homegrown technology and
specifically designed for mobile broadcasting. It has the coveted
approval of the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television.
Signals can be broadcast from towers and via satellites. Other
Chinese chip makers, including InnoFidei and Telepath Technologies,
are also developing products around the standard.
This summer, there will be only nine or 10 channels. CMB Satellite, a
Hong Kong-based affiliate of Dish Network, has been tapped to supply
the programming, including content from China's state broadcaster
CCTV--host of the Olympics--and from local broadcasters. In April
2009, the service will expand to around 30 channels and start
charging monthly subscriptions.
Proponents say China is a natural market for mobile TV. Siano's Ironi
predicts the technology will be as popular in China as it is in
Japan, where 10% of the population, or 12 million people, regularly
watch mobile TV. "As one of the tech initiatives the [Chinese]
government is pushing related to the Olympics, the technology will
certainly gain awareness," says Mike Wolf, a research director at ABI
Research.
It worked in Italy. During the 2006 World Cup, Italy spearheaded a
similar campaign, ramping up coverage and rolling out new video
phones to showcase the European mobile TV standard, DVB-H. Despite a
few early glitches, Italy has now become one of the most advanced
markets for mobile TV.
A push in China could make 2008 the year mobile TV finally hits its
stride. Wolf predicts the number of mobile TV subscribers worldwide
will reach 462 million by 2012, up from a mere 23.8 million today.
Asian markets, particularly China, will drive most of the growth as
phone processors and screens improve and network access gets faster
and cheaper, he says. "It's a greenfield opportunity," says Wolf.
For those Chinese not able to get their hands on the new digital
mobile handheld devices, there's still old-fashioned analog
broadcasts. Sam Sheng, the chief technology officer of Telegent, a
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up that makes the chips, says Telegent
has sold 2.5 million chips to manufacturers, including ZTE, which put
the chips in $150 handsets. Sheng expects the older and new
technologies to coexist until China phases out analog TV, possibly
around 2015.
"It's a way to watch your favorite soap opera today without waiting
for a billion-dollar infrastructure buildout," says Sheng.
He's expecting a boost from the Olympics too. "The average Joes,"
Sheng predicts, "will watch it on our handsets."
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