• by Wayne Friedman , November 19, 2010

A group of 12 major TV station groups says it wants to deliver live video to mobile devices in 40% of the U.S. television markets by the end of next year.

The Mobile Content Venture group says stations are pushing to upgrade technology on their stations -- and by late 2011, plan to have at least two TV stations in each of the 20 top U.S. TV markets, sending live video to portable devices.

Those markets include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Tampa, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Orlando, Portland, Cincinnati, Greenville, West Palm Beach, Birmingham, and Knoxville.

But current mobile devices may not be effective to receive video, according to the group. Consumers will need specific digital video technology devices -- encrypted with what it calls its "conditional access." The MCV group says it is working with various mobile device manufacturers to become available in the second half of 2011.

TV station executives are counting on expected rapid growth of mobile content and devices to deliver big revenues. The group cites one study showing more than 30 million mobile digital TV devices, with television's ATSC video standard, to be deployed by 2014.

Mobile Content Venture is a joint venture that includes Fox, ION Television, NBC and Pearl Mobile DTV. The Pearl member companies include: Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media.