MobiTV grabs Sprint-Cable mobile TV initiative
Published: Wednesday 10 January, 2007
MobiTV confirmed this week that it will provide the on-handset software behind the joint venture that plans to send cable TV in the US to WiMAX based mobile phones. MobiTV is the incumbent software supplier on existing Sprint unicast TV services.
The joint venture company between Sprint Nextel and the largest of the US cable operators, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Advance Newhouse, which collectively have accounts in 75 million US homes, was announced late in 2005 and has taken just 14 months to get to the point where it is close to revealing the technologies that it will use to bring TV to handsets.
The deal brings MobiTV a huge market lead over rival cellular TV software offerings, which have mostly focused on offering EPG services on DVB-H services, including offerings from Nokia itself, Penthera, EXPway and Silicon and Software Systems.
“The representatives of the Joint Venture are delivering a new, innovative service that integrates features and content across their services and networks,” said Dr. Phillip Alvelda, CEO, chairman and co-founder of MobiTV. “Convergence has been a long sought after goal of the telecommunication industry, and one of MobiTV’s core technology and infrastructure development objectives. The participants in this Joint Venture are making this vision a reality, and are directly addressing the needs of consumers by offering television channels and an electronic programming guide wirelessly.”
The video services will be both live, free to air and premium, as well as on-demand mobile TV, and will come straight from the most familiar cable television franchises. The system will include a comprehensive Electronic Program Guide, something that MobiTV was really chosen for, and which the cable companies commented on.
“One of the ways MobiTV has helped us is through the development of a user interface that is easy to use and understand. It allows the consumer to view a screen on their wireless phone that is almost identical to the programming guide on their television at home,” said John Garcia, president of the Sprint-Cable Companies Joint Venture.
TV listings shown in the EPG will be based partially on the zip code of where the person lives and also on the cable TV services that the household subscribes to, and each cable operator will have their own look and feel to the service.
The MobiTV services were on show at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in the US and this is a huge breakthrough for MobiTV. Last year it passed the landmark of capturing 1 million video customers, but these were all through unicast TV services, low quality video that is sent over the cellular data service, and which competes with cellular voice traffic for bandwidth.
During the course of last year MobiTV has spread its wings in taking on multicasting environments, through its work with IP Wireless which pushes a cellular multicast version of TV, and is working on its handset client becoming the basis of datacast DVB-H services such as those offered by Modeo (see separate story).
At WiMAX World last year MobiTV told Faultline that it planned to approach vendors in Korea to ask them about simplifying the multicast specifications that are built into the IEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX standard. It now looks like the company has convinced Runcom, who are cited as providing “infrastructure” in a parallel statement made about WiMAX TV by MobiTV, and who make CPE and base station chips for WiMAX, to make the relevant adaptations. It’s unlikely that Runcom has any of the Sprint contract, but it looks like MobiTV has a “tame” chipset maker that it can tout to other WiMAX operators looking to use its version of multicast TV.
In November MobiTV told us, “Some of the MBS components reach right down into the physical layer of the network, whereas MBMS for the cellular world is defined at the data link layer and above. We don’t think anyone is going to implement MBS as it stands, so we want to work towards a simplified standard,” with those comments coming from Alan Moskowitz, Director of Strategic Alliances at MobiTV.
The MBMS standard which is part of the cellular 3GPP standards stack is based loosely on the Internet Group Management Protocol, adapted for an air interface and is the technology that underpins TDtv from IP Wireless, as a form of multicast mobile TV over a small slice of cellular bandwidth. MobiTV has worked with IP Wireless to produce a client for this, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Sprint will also use the CDMA equivalent, in parallel with WiMAX, BCMCS (BroadCast and MultiCast Services), which is part of the 3GPP2 standards stack for multicasting.
This is because although Sprint has committed to building out its 2.5 GHz spectrum using Motorola WiMAX technology, it still has the legacy of its existing CDMA and EV-DO network to work with. MobiTV is almost certainly providing clients that can work with either the multicast element of WiMAX, and the unicast delivery on both WiMAX and EV-DO, selecting whichever service the client handset is capable of, or in reach of. But it could potentially upgrade to use BCMCS in parallel.
A parallel demonstration at CES this week by MobiTV, was TV over WiMAX using the NDS TV product that was shown at last year’s IBC in Europe. NDS really has done little other than to provide a configuration of its NDS VideoGuard that will work over WiMAX, and used it as the Conditional Access system for a MobiTV delivered stream to an ultra mobile PC.
In September, MobiTV joined the WiMAX Forum and took the lead in the group's proof of concept trial for television, which will take place in northern Californian cities and later in Taiwan. A representative of MobiTV has been assigned to co-chair the Mobile WiMAX Application Proof of Concept initiative within the Forum's Applications Working Group.
Finally MobiTV added many new features to its platform relating to advertising and local content provision at CES as well, almost certainly features that will emerge in both the Sprint service and in existing unicast clients from February onwards.
“Not only have we launched the latest in a series of feature-rich MobiTV service updates, we have connected the dots between advertisers, the entertainment industry, and consumers to make everyone’s media experience more relevant and meaningful,” said Alvelda. “We pride ourselves on leading the convergence of the television, wireless and PC markets and this new release is a tremendous win for everyone.”
Last year, MobiTV launched its first advertising platform, which enabled the service to feature branded video advertisements during local availability segments of unicast streaming TV. MobiTV is now adding features for the consumer to buy into services interactively off its main menu.
It gives examples of clicking on advertising to find the nearest retail outlets, downloading promotional coupons and opting into long form video ads while the TV service is “paused.”
The new MobiTV features also enable carriers and their content partners and advertisers to present “buy” offers to users which are related to the video content they have viewed or are in the process of viewing.
Buttons will appear alongside videos, for instance music videos, allowing the user to purchase a ring-tone, wallpaper or concert tickets for the corresponding artist. Also, while a user is watching a movie trailer they would enter their zip code and a button will appear allowing them to view local show times or purchase movie tickets.
The system will also allow consumers the option to vote on or rate something they are viewing.
The deal between Sprint and the cable operators over mobile TV is set to last 20 years and is exclusive for the first three of those years and has had an initial funding of $100 from each side, Sprint and the cable companies.
The TV services when they come will be sold through 1,600 Sprint retail stores, cable retail outlets and other third-party distributors, including thousands of RadioShack stores, and by the cable companies themselves.
The service will also offer remote programming of home based DVRs and provide a single voice mailbox for the home and the wireless phone.
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