• by Wayne Friedman , January 8, 2009

LAS VEGAS -- Major TV station groups unveiled a groundbreaking mobile digital TV service under their Open Mobile Video Coalition initiative in an announcement at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

The service, which uses a new ATSC Mobile DTV system that transmits stations' signals directly with mobile devices, is debuting on 63 stations in 22 markets, covering 35% of U.S. television households. Markets include New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami. Los Angeles is not yet in the mix.

Some 25 major broadcasting groups in OMVC include NBC Television, Gannett Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Fox Television, Belo Corp., Grey Television, Scripps Television, Hearst Argyle Television, ION Media Networks and Lin Television.

TV stations view this project as a salvation of sorts for their flagging business, especially as their customers move away from traditional TV platforms.

A key piece of the initial plan is that it does not rely on mobile carriers for signal transmission. Another important element is that it is a free service; at least initially, it is ad-supported.

"The standard has the ability to be up-sold," says Brandon Burgess, OMVC president and chairman/CEO of ION Media Networks. "But free is a good starting point."

"We believe in community service," says David Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. Coalition TV executives talked a lot about weather emergencies during which consumers, say without power in their homes during a hurricane, would still be able to get local news and weather information.

As part of the announcement, a number of equipment manufacturers and technology companies have signed on to the project, including LG Electronics, Kenwood (for in-vehicle mobile units), Harris Corp., Samsung and Delphi.

LG said it will offer five new products capable of getting Mobile DTV signals. But backers of the effort said in theory that any mobile device would be capable of getting TV station signals.

As for advertising, Burgess told MediaPost that much of it will initially come from retransmission of TV stations' local TV shows, which carry commercials. There may be some initial sponsorship from the Mobile DTV equipment manufacturers, too. The coalition is also working with Nielsen Media Research on getting viewer measurement service--but did not preclude looking at other non-Nielsen systems.

In regard to marketing to consumers, Burgess said TV stations are well-suited to offering their own TV promo time, especially when it comes to their news, sports and local programming. Stations would be encouraged to do this, since "the implementation costs of [mobile TV] are very inexpensive," he says.

In the initial 22 markets, Burgess says there will be an average of three to five local TV signals. But this is only a starting point. "We might encourage MTV or ESPN to be partners," adds Burgess.

For the Las Vegas announcement, OMVC used two local Sinclair-owned Las Vegas stations to show off its wares: KVMY, the MyNetwork TV affiliate, and KVCW, the CW affiliate. Among the programming included in the test were shows from: ABC, CNBC, CW, Fox, Fox News, NBC, PBS, Qubo and Cool Music Network.

One major concern among some analysts was the lack of mobile carriers included. Some believe the OMVC effort is competitive with telecommunications companies' own mobile video efforts.

Mobile DTV executives countered this, saying that cell phone towers can become overloaded from time to time; their service is complementary to the mobile Internet.