Earlier this year in the UK, two major trials of mobile TV finished and the conclusions from those trials were good news for content providers – TV to mobile is something people definitely want – although it’s not clear yet which delivery technology will win out.
One trial used DVB-H – the ‘handheld’ version of the DVB digital television standard that forms the basis of most terrestrial, cable and satellite TV worldwide. The other trial used the data capacity of the DAB network – the delivery mechanism for digital radio in the UK – and used internet protocol over DAB to deliver the TV signals – DVB-IP.
These are different delivery technologies, but the results of the trials were broadly similar.
People want TV on mobile handsets - and a sizable proportion are prepared to pay for it. However DVB-H currently has no spectrum assigned for its use in the UK, although serious representations have been made to the regulator OFCOM to release spectrum for DVB-H to kick start the technology in the UK.
The UK could have a TV to Mobile service using the DVB-T standard by 2008, if the government took the decision to make the necessary spectrum available, according to Mike Short, O2’s vice president of research & development.
“We know there is UHF spectrum that could be released,” he says, and calls for a wider debate on the possibility of using that spectrum to begin a DVB-T TV to mobile service, ahead of the timescale the government currently has in mind, which is only to begin such services after digital switch-off in 2012.
Short says the success of the Oxford trial of DVB-T broadcasting to mobile handsets, shows there’s a definite demand for the type of full scale offering of multichannel TV to mobiles he believes only DVB-H can offer.
Some 83 percent of the triallists expressed satisfaction with the trial service, which offered 16 branded TV channels, and 76 percent said they’d sign up for a service within the next twelve months, at 10 pounds a month. But triallists also made clear 16 channels was the minimum number they’d want, and the majority wanted many more than that.
The pressure is now on to provide the UK with a full DVB-H service by the time of the London Olympics in 2012.
“It would be criminal for the UK to fall behind in this area, and for the UK to have less of a TV to Mobile service for the London Olympics in 2012, than Beijing will have in 2008” says Short. Italy and Finland are due to begin DVB-T services in 2006/7.
The US has already assigned spectrum for TV to Mobile use – the first services will use yet another delivery technology, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, which has some similarity with DVB as both use OFDM modulation.
However, a DAB service is getting ready to roll in the UK, through a DVB-IP service planned to begin this autumn, in a wholesale offering to mobile phone operators initiated by BT Movio, which undertook the DAB trial under its previous trade name, BT Livetime.
The new service will use the data capacity of the UK’s national commercial DAB station, Digital One. There is a regulatory restriction on how much the DAB frequencies can be used for TV services, since TV, as a non-radio service, has to use the part of the spectrum devoted to data services, and that’s only 20 percent of the total spectrum.
It means the DAB-IP TV service will allow a maximum of five TV channels, although if another national DAB frequency can be added after launch, that capacity could be doubled to ten channels.
However, as it is DAB, the handset service will also provide all digital radio channels in a given area, some 50 in London for example, and the BT Movio trial showed it was digital radio that proved more popular than TV.
“The triallists used radio 50 percent more than TV – 95 minutes a week versus 66 minutes of TV,” says Matt McCann, commercial & strategy director for BT Movio.
It was also clear from the trial that consumers wanted full simulcast TV to mobile handsets rather than short form TV snacks.
“Using the service in the home was the most popular location, after commuting, and we think that has to do with control of what you’re watching, for instance if the family TV set is being used by other people, you can use your mobile phone to access the TV programmes you want,” he adds.
The handset planned for the full service has been designed to feel more like a remote control than a phone, and red button interactivity will be an important feature, according to McCann.
“We made the ability to use the red button to purchase or download, simple to use, and that saw a high take-up during the trial, with far higher conversion rates than we predicted – so we see a large amount of value coming from interactive” he says.
However McCann admits that BT Movio wasn’t locked into DAB-IP, it was just one in a continuum of carriers for mobile services, with DVB-T and WiMAX to come.
“We aspire to let the content drive the carrier, with one platform working across multiple carriers. DAB-IP is just the first” he says.
However even though DAB-TV is only just about to start in the UK, and DVB-H may be some way off, TV to mobile phones is already happening in the UK, and it’s creating a lot of interest amongst broadcasters.
At last, it seems, a killer application for 3G has been found – and it is, of course, television.
With the broadcasters so interested, it could mean that the mobile operators have finally found the route to recouping some of the enormous sums they paid at auction for the 3G spectrum.
The major broadcasters in the UK have been launching TV to mobile services all year aimed at 3G handsets.
In April this year, Channel 4 relaunched its mobile TV channel, and made it available on Vodafone and Orange. It provides a 20 minute rolling loop of bespoke, mobile content with specially recorded idents and voice-overs. Programmes include Hollyoaks Bitesize, a daily catch up service on C4’s main soap opera, and two to three minute versions of some of C4’s more popular shows such as the cult comedy Green Wing, The IT Crowd, and Shipwrecked.
Channel 4 also launched Channel 4 News Mobile, a video news service for mobile phones provided by C4’s news provider ITN.
In the first of its kind from a UK terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4 News Mobile offers daily video news updates produced especially for mobile phones, using the main anchors from Channel 4’s flagship evening news show.
The service offers four 90 second news updates every day through a short format specifically tailored for the small screen and fast moving nature of viewing video on mobile. Each bulletin is anchored by one of the Channel 4 News team and updates viewers on the three or four main stories of the day. In addition, the service breaks news as soon as it happens and there is a daily ‘best of show’ clip edited from each night’s main newscast.
ITV’s first mobile TV portal launched in September 2005, and ITV partnered with 3, Orange and O2 to enable subscribers to access ITV content direct from the portal.
ITV has recently formed a partnership with 3G operator 3 to stream its main channel, ITV1, and its participation channel, ITV Play, live on 3. This will effectively be a simulcast of the two ITV services.
The largest provider of commissioned programmes for 3 is enteraction TV (etv) , which supplies programme material for 3’s main daily TV service, ‘Today on 3 Live’ with material made specifically for the mobile screen.
etv also made magazine segments to go alongside 3’s service of World Cup highlights – a big success for the operator this year.
‘Berlin or Bust’ used well known presenters to host the mobile programming. This service saw significant take-up for 3 in the summer – 3.6 million streams and 600,000 downloads.
The BBC is also keeping a close eye on what’s happening in TV for mobiles, having taken part in the main DVB-H trial in the UK, and has just embarked, with ITV on another trial that will last until the end of the year, that will compare BT Movio’s new DAB-IP service with a UK version of the Korean Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) service.
MTV Networks has made mobile TV an integral part of its programming offer, either via simulcast of its broadcast services, or via special made for mobile segments, that cover the key areas of programming featured in its broadcast services, but designed for two to three minute ‘snacks’ that people can access from a two hour loop of material that’s refreshed on a regular basis.
According to Angel Gambino, vice president of commercial strategy and digital media for MTV Europe, mobile TV is now an essential part of the MTV mix and is seen as a new revenue opportunity. She says MTV is now committed to 360 degree commissioning - the idea that when a new programme idea is adopted, it’s prepared from the start for all the platforms the broadcaster is using.
“It means there are a lot of opportunities for brand extension – and mobile TV is an important part of that,” she says.
It also means ideas for TV programming can come out of new media like mobile TV. Gambino offers the example of Barrio 19, which began life as a mobile TV segment showing skateboarding tricks. “It did so well on mobile, we took it to TV,” she says.
The one thing the current players really don’t want to talk about is how the revenue from TV to Mobiles will be shared. The industries involved - broadcasters, telco’s, programme providers - all have such different revenue models and business mindsets that it could prove very challenging to come up with a business model for Mobile TV that satisfies everyone.
Mobile operators subsidise handsets, so that will be part of the equation. Operators are also used to charging for consumption by the minute, and that won’t appeal to broadcasters. Content providers are used to being commissioned, so may not take well to revenue sharing.
As Mike Short points out, the different players have to get together and crack this one, since it’s to the benefit of all the parties in what looks as though it might become a very successful industry indeed.
According to Short, there’s been a lot of interest around what the trials tell us about the demand for portable media, and predictions of take-up now estimate between 250-500 million mobile TV subscriptions within five years.
However, Short believes there’s a need to raise understanding of how this new market is likely work in the future, and feeding in the opinions of the different players is vital.
“What do the broadcasters think? The content producers, the wireless and technology companies? How can we all work together on this to make ‘portable television a success?,” he asks.
Short was the theme day producer for the mobile TV part of this year’s IBC conference, where the show’s Mobile Zone was greatly expanded.
The conference day was carefully titled ‘Media on the Move’ to remain agnostic between delivery devices.
“The reason we called our theme day ‘Media on the Move’ is because there is a wide choice of technologies and means of delivery to satisfy this demand for personal television – this is not a cellular only world. The desire for portability means many new ways of delivering portable content,” he says.
“We put the emphasis on the business models that will work today, tomorrow and in the future, as well as raising more of the commercial issues that need to be faced.”
However, even if the revenue models need serious work, the nightmare scenario of many different competing standards for Mobile TV and none being able to achieve critical mass may be receding. The chipset manufacturers for mobile phones are working on silicon that will work with any of the mooted delivery technologies – and wouldn’t that be great.
No need to worry whether you will still be able to access your favourite TV programming when you change providers or move across borders – your device will take care of it. That really is one thing to look out for.