Mobile DTV is coming to the smartphone later this year, allowing MetroPCS Communications customers with select Samsung Android devices to watch local TV on their mobile phones.
The mobile DTV milestone was jointly announced Jan. 4 by the Mobile Content Venture (MVC), MetroPCS and Samsung Telecommunications America. MetroPCS will become the first wireless service provider to offer Dyle Mobile TV to consumers on devices with a pre-loaded Dyle application and an ATSC-Mobile DTV receiver.
“We know that our customers have a desire to take entertainment with them wherever they go and understand that they want premium services at an incredible value, which we will continue offering by supplying services like Dyle,” said MetroPCS president and COO Tom Keys.
MetroPCS markets include Atlanta; Boston; Dallas-Fort Worth; Detroit; Jacksonville, FL; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York City; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia; Sacramento, CA; San Francisco; and Tampa, FL. With more than 9.1 million subscribers as of Sept. 30, 2011, it is the fifth largest wireless carrier in the United States.
Dyle Mobile TV, the consumer-facing brand launched by MCV, will deliver live mobile-television content from 15 major broadcast groups, including Pearl — which is made up of Belo, Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith, Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media — as well as FOX, ION Television, Bahakel, Univision, Telemundo and NBC. At launch, MCV expects to offer the mobile video service on more than 72 stations in 32 markets covering more than 50 percent of the U.S. population.
In a joint statement from Salil Dalvi and Erik Moreno, co-general managers of MCV, the pair described the decision of MetroPCS to offer the Mobile DTV-enabled Samsung device as “the first step in realizing the broadcaster vision of live, local TV on every smartphone.”
MetroPCS, MCV and Samsung Mobile will demonstrate Dyle live mobile digital television service at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 10-13.
