• Associated Press, Monday, August 18, 2008 10:15 AM

The United States is behind several other countries when it comes to boosting TV viewership by making free, ad-supported television an attractive option for mobile phones. Choices about TV technology made long ago are largely to blame.

Cell phones that can tune in to free TV broadcasts are widely available in Japan, South Korea, Germany and China, but not in the U.S. One major reason is the impending shutdown of analog TV broadcasts in February. Most handsets can only tune in to TV via analog transmissions--so there is no interest in selling phones like that in the United States, since analog is going away.

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