• by Wayne Friedman , April 18, 2011

Major broadcasters' mobile TV efforts are expected to be in 32 markets by the end of the year -- covering half of all U.S. television homes.

"Increasing market coverage will make this new platform even more attractive to device manufacturers and most importantly to consumers," says Erik Moreno, co-general manager of the Mobile Content Venture, an effort comprised of 12 top broadcasting groups. "With half of the U.S. population covered, we continue to make steady progress toward the launch of mobile DTV."

A dozen markets -- 21 stations overall -- have been added to 20 markets announced earlier. They include: KING-TV Seattle (Belo); WTVJ-TV Miami (NBC) & WSCV TV Miami (Telemundo); KUSA-TV Denver (Gannett); WKYC-TV Cleveland (Gannett); KSDK-TV St. Louis (Gannett); WCCB-TV Charlotte (Bahakel) & WCNC Charlotte (Belo); WNCN-TV Raleigh (Media General); KSHB-TV Kansas City (Scripps); WCMH-T Columbus (Media General); KBLR-TV Las Vegas (Telemundo); KJRH-TV Tulsa (Scripps); and WSFA-TV Montgomery, Ala. (Raycom).

There are also seven stations in markets already announced: owned Telemundo stations in WNJU-TV New York; KVEA TV Los Angeles; WSNS-TV Chicago; KXTX-TV Dallas; KTMD-TV Houston; and KSTS-TV San Jose, in addition to KTVK-TV Phoenix (Belo).

Mobile Content Venture intends to deliver live television and on-demand video content.

Broadcasters include Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media, all of which are part of the standalone entity known as Pearl Mobile group, which counts Fox Television Stations, ION Television and NBC as members.