Mobile Content Venture (MCV), a joint venture of 12 major broadcasters, will upgrade TV stations in 20 DMAs to deliver mobile DTV. MCV, which is made up of Fox, ION Television, NBC and Pearl Mobile DTV, plans to deliver mobile TV service in markets encompassing 40 percent of the U.S. population by the end of 2011. (Pearl consists of Belo, Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television, Media General, Meredith, Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media.)
Those initial mobile DTV launch markets, which make up 13 of the top 15 DMAs, include New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Dallas; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Houston; Detroit; Tampa, FL; Phoenix; Minneapolis; Orlando, FL; Portland, OR; Cincinnati; Greenville, SC; West Palm Beach, FL; Birmingham, AL; and Knoxville, TN.
Live, local video, as well as news, sports and entertainment, will be a crucial part of the service, which will launch as two ad-supported, free-to-air channels in each market. To increase the number of mobile DTV devices available in the marketplace, the MCV is working closely with handset manufacturers and OEMs to make more devices available by Q3 2011.
