Mobile digital television, an application that is just starting to be exploited, offers immense potential and is a highly efficient user of spectrum, according to the Open Mobile Video Coalition. It should not be cast aside by a spectrum-hungry FCC.
OMVC state, “Digital TV transmission provides new and exciting opportunities for broadcasters to expand the services they provide to the viewing public — including Mobile DTV, which will allow viewers to watch live, local television on their cell phones, netbooks and other web-enabled and portable devices.
“The emerging Mobile DTV platform is the natural evolution of television and is an indispensible part of the nation’s broadband solution. Mobile DTV is unparalleled in its ability to reach millions of viewers at once – something no other broadband platform can do. Mobile DTV’s unique ability to reach millions of consumers simultaneously and continuously makes it the most efficient use of the spectrum to deliver relevant and important location information, news, emergency alerts, and popular sports and entertainment programming to mobile viewers.
“The proliferation of technology is driving consumer demand for more mobile solutions and our ability to use the public airwaves to extend the capabilities of digital over-the-air broadcasting will allow us to better meet our viewers’ evolving needs. At the same time, as consumers rely on national and local broadcasters for the majority of their entertainment and news programming, it is even more important for the television industry to be able to expand its reach beyond the home set and onto viewers’ portable devices.
“In the public policy debate over spectrum allocation, we urge Congress and the FCC to carefully consider the essential role Mobile DTV can play as a resource for emergency alerts, as a source for vital public information, and as an ingredient in the country’s broadband future.”
RBR-TVBR observation: Broadcasters went to enormous trouble and expense to pull off the digital transition, and despite predictions of doom and gloom from some quarters, pulled off the most expansive change in US communications history in exemplary fashion, and with very little investment of taxpayer funds. It is time to give those same broadcasters at least half a chance to develop these new digital capabilities. The beneficiaries will be the same US citizens that the FCC is supposedly trying to serve.
