The Great Land Grab: A Look Back at the Last Year in Media & Entertainment
What About Mobile?
While another set of articles and columns, found elsewhere in this issue, are dedicated to mobile, let’s touch briefly on a few points as they relate to our topic.
First, between TV Everywhere and the A/153 mobile television specification that was recently adopted, the potential to disrupt "traditional" streaming media equilibrium appears quite high as we enter 2010. Nowhere will this be felt more than in the mobile space, which has traditionally been owned by the telecoms, primarily AT&T and Verizon.
First, consider the example of FLO TV, which provides Verizon Wireless with its V CAST service and AT&T Wireless with an equivalent service. FLO, a subsidiary of Qualcomm, has also launched its own broadcast service, with 20 linear bands on an overlay dedicated multicast network in 20 major U.S. markets.
"[Our multicast network] is impervious to the number of viewers, whether it be 1,000 or 100,000," says Bill Stone, president of FLO TV. "Streaming at 400Kbps on a mobile device is equivalent of 100 voice calls, … so it puts a huge demand on existing mobile data networks. As a result, if you want to stream a Slingbox signal over the 3G network, AT&T will shut it down, but FLO allows scalability outside the existing data network."
FLO TV’s usage behavior differs from traditional television, says Stone, adding that the average usage rate from "our users was 25–30 minutes daily, [which is] higher than Hulu.com," with usage peaking at 1p.m. and staying consistent from 2p.m.–10p.m. versus traditional television, which has a 6 p.m.–10 p.m. prime time.
Second, similar to FLO, traditional broadcasters—once left for dead in the wake of the analog television transition—now hold a side-band ace in the hole; through their regional over-the-air (OTA) broadcast affiliates, the major broadcasters have access to a significant frequency spectrum that is part of the digital broadcast standard.
"ATSC Mobile DTV services are carried in existing digital broadcast channels along with current DTV services without any adverse impact on legacy receiving equipment," an industry press release said, when the A/153 mobile DTV data transmission service was adopted. "ATSC Mobile DTV was developed to support a variety of services including free (advertiser-supported) television and interactive services, including real-time, subscription-based TV, and file-based content download for playback at a later time. The standard can also be used for transmission of new data broadcasting services."
What’s that? Data broadcasting services via a television transmission? Yes. Because mobile DTV in the A/153 spec is based on IP transmission, it has the potential to place broadcasters in the role of the CDN that fits well in to their legacy models and that also are impervious to sudden spikes in viewership. An additional benefit is the fact that MPEG AVC (H.264) video and HE-AAC v2 audio would be used for mobile DTV transmissions, matching the video and audio codecs that are used in traditional DTV broadcasts delivered to the living room television.
"My opinion is that we should partner with the ATSC to help drive overall adoption," Stone says. "Fast forward 5 years and I think you’ll see a similar model between free TV and pay TV, where we would provide the pay TV portion of the equation."
The end of 2009 brought about a skirmish between OTA broadcasters, who were represented by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), and the wireless telephony industry, which is salivating over this "extra" spectrum that it wants to use for additional wireless broadband delivery. Needless to say, the NAB quickly moved to pre-empt the wireless industry, flatly declaring that OTA broadcasts had no intent of returning to standard-definition broadcasts—as suggested by the wireless industry—and that the OTA spectrum is not for sale.
Third, Sling announced in late 2009 that it had received permission from Apple to add its iPhone-based SlingPlayer app to the iTunes App Store, allowing place shifting of content on the iPhone. The app streams via Wi-Fi only, for now, and is available in 19 countries, including France, Germany, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S.The limitation on the iPhone SlingPlayer is not a technical one, as Sling showed off prototypes in early 2009 with the ability to stream Sling.com content via 3G. Instead, the limitation is partially the decision of AT&T, the exclusive service provider for the iPhone in the U.S.
All of this brings us back around to EchoStar. Sling’s mobile player is closely aligned with its ability to stream web-only playback of Sling.com content to Mac desktops and laptops, and even to EchoStar set-top boxes, as a way to increase on-demand content for cable or satellite providers.
Conclusion
Whether you call this latest land grab "manifest destiny" or simply business as usual, 2009 laid the groundwork for an end game in which this land grab is about establishing a presence that spans decades, not years. Several of the events and emerging standards were still in flux at the time this article was written, so watch carefully in 2010 to see which armies establish strategic positions in various parts of the U.S.
For more on the year in mobile video, see Troy Dreier’s "Two-Way Street," pp. 44–49.
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