On the Go
The
outlook for mobile TV news
If
local television news is going to survive, it will have to get out
of the living room. And the den. And the kitchen. Having watched its
audience shrink for years, the broadcast industry hopes to bring viewers
back by taking its show on the road. But is mobile broadcasting really
the answer?
So
far, the evidence is not heartening. Mobile video is available from
cell phone companies like Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, but, according
to the research firm Nielsen Mobile, most people never watch it. "Only
36 percent of devices in the U.S. are capable of receiving mobile
video," Vice President Jeff Herrmann told a conference in Barcelona.
"Only about two percent [of cell phone subscribers] use it."
Handsets
aren't the only problem. Cost and content are big factors, too. Cell
phone providers typically charge $15 a month extra for video services,
but when it comes to local TV news, they offer almost nothing you
can't get elsewhere.
A
company called News Over Wireless, launched two years ago, provides
on-demand video clips from more than 80 local TV stations across the
country to cell phone customers with video plans. That sounds impressive,
until you consider these stations make up only 10 percent of those
that produce local news, according to Hofstra University's Bob Papper,
who conducts an annual station survey for the Radio-Television News
Directors Association.
NOW
General Manager Sam Matheny says the service has already logged hundreds
of thousands of views and is ahead of initial projections. But that
hardly makes it a rip-roaring success for local stations that have
signed up.
At
WZZM-TV, the Gannett station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, News Director
Tim Geraghty says far more people use his station's mobile Web service,
which offers free text updates and still images, than his station's
video services, both paid and free. "Some people are turned off by
the notion of paying for video on a cell phone that they could see
for free online after a short ad," he says.
A
coalition of big media groups, including NBC, Tribune Co. and Gannett,
hopes the answer may not be far off. The Open Mobile Video Coalition
has been investigating technology from LG and Samsung that would untether
broadcast TV, "so that consumers can watch television wherever and
whenever they want."
Recent
field tests in Las Vegas and San Francisco were encouraging, according
to Sterling Davis, Cox Broadcasting's vice president of engineering.
"We had an antenna on top of a minivan and drove around the cities,
in traffic, on interstates and showed that the signal could be received
reliably," Davis says. Receivers picked up the digital signal 40 miles
away from the broadcast tower, at speeds up to 80 miles per hour.
Sure couldn't do that on your old Sony Watchman.
The
potential is obvious. Commuters could watch live traffic reports,
news and weather updates on the move. And they wouldn't have to use
a cell phone to get it. Any screen that delivers full motion video,
from seat-back video players in cars to laptops and portable game
systems, could become a mobile TV set by adding a receiver chip. Davis
says the one-time cost would be "reasonable;" some estimates put it
at just $10.
"Wireless
TV could be a killer app," says John Eck, president of the NBC TV
Network, especially for local news. Stations could use it for ongoing
coverage they wouldn't put on their main channel for fear of losing
audience or revenue. For example, Eck says, "WNBC in New York could
have had a wireless Pope channel" when Pope Benedict XVI visited the
city earlier this year, or a "crane channel" to cover recent accidents.
They
wouldn't do it as a public service, of course. "We're analyzing free
models and pay models to see how that might work," says Jim Conschafter,
senior vice president of the Media General Broadcast Group. One possibility
would be to charge a small subscription fee for video developed specifically
for mobile broadcast. Everything else stations are already producing
would be available free, supported by advertising.
"There's
going to be a terrific business model for a small broadcaster in Middle
America that doesn't want to make a big investment but can get a good
solid return on mobile," Conschafter says.
How
solid? According to a report from BIA Financial Network, mobile video
ads could bring in $2 billion a year, which the Open Mobile Video
Coalition estimates will occur by 2012. While that's not chump change,
it's no windfall, either. The Television Bureau of Advertising reports
local TV broadcasters lost almost that much in ad revenue last year
alone.
"We
look at our content and we believe it's relevant content," NBC's president
of local media, John Wallace, told the New York Times. "It's just
not convenient because of the way people's lives have changed with
technology."
So
mobile video may not be the Holy Grail TV stations have been searching
for, but supporters say it has to be part of the answer to the biggest
question facing local broadcast news. "We're No. 1 now," says News
Over Wireless' Matheny. "What are we going to do to make sure we're
No. 1 10 years from now?"
By
Deborah Potter@www.newslab.org
HOME
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*Watch
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Once again a near death incident. Glad everyone's safe...but
here's another reason why I've given up helicopters for good.
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Now that's what I'm talkin' about. You go get 'em
cameraman!
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video cameraman drops out of sight
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