/ 10.04.2010 12:00AM
Mobile DTV Showcase Details to Be Presented at CTIA Show
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Open Mobile
Video Coalition plans to provide details of its five-month trial at the CTIA
Enterprise & Applications show this Thursday in San Francisco. The OMVC
said it will provide an update with more detailed findings, “including the
channel-changing preferences of hundreds of viewers who have tuned into thousands
of programs thus far.”
The trial comprises a service launch in the Washington, D.C. market where 23
content channels are being transmitted by nine broadcasters using the
terrestrial mobile digital television transmission standard. The trial, dubbed
a “consumer showcase,” started in May with 150 Sprint subscribers supplied with
ATSC M/H-enabled Samsung Moment cell phones. Additional subscribers were
equipped with a variety of other receivers as the trial progressed. It runs
through October.
The OMVC previously indicated that the most popular programming was local news,
according to user data compiled by Rentrak. The newish mobile medium is watched
mostly during the work week. By mid-September, the Samsung Moment users had
tuned in to 2,600 different TV programs. Most said they used the TV function on
their Samsung cells because it was convenient.
The showcase includes interactive advertising, electronic service guides for
program information, closed captioning, and emergency alerts. In addition to
automatic audience measurement, the Consumer Showcase is leveraging an online
social media research platform from Harris Interactive. Participants are being
asked to provide feedback through daily diaries, market research, and focus
groups. Managed by the OMVC, the Consumer Showcase is sponsored by LG
Electronics and Samsung.
The OMVC has around 30 members that own a collective 500 commercial TV
stations, plus organizations representing 360 or so public stations. TV
stations in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and
several other cities are now transmitting feeds in ATSC M/H.