Twelve Major Broadcast Groups plan to form a separate joint venture to develop a new U.S mobile content service. Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, Fox, E.W. Scripps Co., ION Television, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. NBC, and Raycom Media is to jointly provide service which will allow member companies to provide content to mobile devices, including live and on-demand video, local and national news from print and electronic sources, as well as sports and entertainment programming to around 150 million U.S. residents.
The project is intended to harmonize and balance the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) National Broadband scheme by giving consumers mobile access to video content while reducing congestion of the nation’s wireless broadband infrastructure. The service’s mobile content network will also have the capacity to deliver local and national time-sensitive emergency information to U.S. Commenting on this, John Wallace, President, NBC Local Media said, “This initiative offers a path for the next generation of video consumption, and will help the FCC in its goal of ensuring efficient and reliable broadband service for US consumers.” Following this, Brandon Burgess, CEO of ION Television said, “This venture takes to the next level the work we embarked upon three years ago with the development of Mobile DTV technology, in anticipation of digital TV capabilities and consumer mobile demand.”
Broadcast gamut to be operated for the new mobile service will come from the three owned station groups, Fox, NBC & Telemundo, and ION while the other nine local broadcast groups, which are Belo, Cox, E.W. Scripps, Gannett, Hearst, Media General, Meredith, Post Newsweek and Raycom formed Pearl Mobile DTV Company LLC as a vehicle for their involvement in the venture. In addition, the partners will commit content, marketing resources and capital to the new venture. The service will employ ATSC-M/H, an open broadcast transmission system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee particularly for mobile devices. Jack Abernethy, Chief Executive Officer of Fox Television Stations, said, “We are excited about building a platform that makes mobile television universally available and economically viable. This venture is the first step in forging cross-industry and company partnerships to deliver content to consumers.”
“Mobile digital television places each of our companies at the centre of a consumer transformation, putting us on cell phones, netbooks, DVD players and even in-vehicle entertainment systems,” said David Lougee, President, Gannett Broadcasting, Gannett Co. Inc. “And it’s the consumers who are the big winners. From news and entertainment to emergency information, virtually all U.S. consumers will soon be able to bring their most valuable content with them wherever they go.”
Tags: broadband service, broadcast groups, content network, content service, dtv technology, e w scripps, electronic sources, ion television, john wallace