OMVC DC Showcase Highlights Mobile DTV Interest

By Doug Lung
published


The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) updated the wireless industry on the results of its Washington D.C. Mobile DTV Consumer Showcase this week at the CTIA Enterprise and Applications in San Francisco.

OMVC released some the key findings from the Consumer Showcase on Monday. Among them, the most popular mobile program is local news.

An OMVC press release said Rentrak's Mobile Essentials system found that Mobile DTV is mostly viewed during the work week, and that local news leads that viewing pattern "by number of episodes and total unique viewers."

This is good news for local TV stations planning to roll out mobile service. The study also found that convenience was the key reason that Samsung Moment viewers provide for watching more TV than before. Not surprisingly, Mobile DTV viewing spiked higher during emergencies.

"Viewers participating in the Consumer Showcase of Mobile DTV say that local channels are critical to a successful service," said Brandon Burgess, OMVC president and ION Media Network CEO. "This tracks with a Magid Media Labs survey OMVC sponsored last December that found nearly nine out of 10 consumers said they wanted to see live news and weather programming while on-the-go. Our hand-on findings in Washington show that local channels will be the anchor for future Mobile DTV services."

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack. A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.