As if you are not barraged with video choices from your cable system, YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, NetFlix, and Ye’ Olde Video Store in the neighborhood, here comes yet another way to veg out: programs beamed over the air from your local TV station right to your cellphone.
A group called the Open Mobile Video Coalition announced Thursday the completion of a standard that will let TV stations use a sliver of the new frequencies that Congress gave them for high-definition broadcasts for broadcasts to wireless devices.
TV on the cellphone isn’t a new concept, of course. People can watch YouTube and other Web videos on some smartphones. Some carriers, like Verizon, also offer video clips on demand. This approach allows users to choose anything they want to watch, but it uses scarce capacity of the wireless data networks.
It is far more efficient to broadcast certain channels, allowing any device to tune in to a stream of programs, the way regular broadcast TV works. Qualcomm’s Flo TV uses the broadcast approach to offer about 20 linear channels for a $15 monthly fee.
The new standard would allow TV stations to have both free and paid channels aimed at mobile devices using their existing spectrum.
On Friday, the coalition demonstrated the new service by taking a number of government officials on a bus ride around Washington during which they could lean back and watch TV.
The group said that at least 70 stations would begin broadcasting using the standard. Several electronics makers, including Samsung, LG and Dell, have produced prototype devices. It is first likely to be available on netbook computers, according to a report in Broadcasting and Cable.
The standard was devised for mobile phones, in part because watching TV on handsets has become common in parts of Asia. But so far, no wireless carrier in the United States has agreed to sell a handset with a tuner that can use the new standard. After all, why let people do something free when you can charge money for it instead?
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