Wireless Rivals Primed for Mobile TV

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Competing Networks

And mobile TV is destined not just for wireless handsets but also laptops, ultra-mobile PCs, and portable media players. Modeo is working on mobile-TV-only devices, says company President Michael Ramke. "We see the market opportunity as going beyond the mobile phone," he says. "Many consumers don't want their phone to be a Swiss Army knife." He hints that his company may be in talks with consumer electronics makers that could include the capabilities in their music players. He's not naming names, but contenders include Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

The U.S. market is also likely to benefit from competition amid different mobile-TV technologies. Besides MediaFLO, there's Modeo's DVB-H, which is common in Europe. Sprint Nextel (S) is testing video delivery through broadband wireless technology called WiMAX. That service could be available in late 2007. Upstart Sling Media offers a service that lets users watch home TV channels and TiVo recordings on mobile phones (see BusinessWeek.com, 3/3/06, "Will Sling Media Shift Places?").

Amid the scrum, expect mobile-TV capabilities to improve, analysts say. Texas Instruments (TXN) is working on chips that will enable so-called picture-in-picture viewing, where the user can watch two channels on the same screen, and in-phone personal video recorders. In Korea, Samsung already sells phones that let users record a mobile-TV broadcast for a few minutes while taking a call. Yoram Solomon, a senior director of strategic marketing at Texas Instruments and president of industry consortium Mobile DTV Alliance, reckons that by 2010, a cell phone might boast 100GB of storage. That's enough capacity to record a month's worth of video.

"Only the Beginning"

Phones could eventually be used to project mobile-TV footage onto larger PC and TV screens. In one to two years, a mobile might project content onto a home TV via a Wi-Fi network. Some consumers could even end up cutting their cable TV bill or using mobile TV to supplement their current channel lineup at home.

CBS (CBS) in February formed a special division, CBS Mobile, to produce and format content for mobile TV. "The broadcast element is only the beginning here," says Cyriac Roeding, executive vice-president of CBS Mobile. Interactive and customized content will be a key part of broadcast mobile TV as well. On Feb. 28, Modeo showcased a technology called media-casting. How it works: You tell Modeo what content—local weather, golf, local news—you'd like to watch tomorrow. Overnight, Modeo uploads the video clips onto your phone. And in the morning, or whenever, the channels will be streamed to your phone as though they are being broadcast live, explains Modeo's Ramke.

"People are still not grasping the enormity of having a TV on your phone," says TI's Solomon. "The technology is there. Now, the consumers need to get used to making these big leaps."

Click here to see a slide show of upcoming mobile-TV offerings.

Kharif is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.