Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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BSkyB maybe planning mobile TV network

Murdoch's answer to Virgin's 4-Play
By Tony Dennis: Monday 10 April 2006, 14:34

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30890

NOW THAT the merger of Virgin Mobile with NTL/Telewest is confirmed, this is putting increasing pressure on arch rivals to respond. The most likely candidate is Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB. Could it be planning a mobile TV network?
The satellite broadcaster has already shown willing by acquiring Easynet so that it can offer its customers both broadband Internet and fixed line telephony. All it needs now is a cellular side to complete its own four-play (broadband; fixed, mobile and TV).

The INQ picked up on remarks made by Qualcomm's Rob Chandhok over likely candidates for the introduction of its MediaFLO technology into Europe. He argued that the difficult bit with any mobile TV offering is not so much building the network and supplying the phones.

To make such a venture work well, Chandhok explained, what you really need is masses of content. The ideal candidate would be able to fill 22 channels of mobile TV with content on a 24/7 basis. He also revealed that Qualcomm has identified sport as being the big draw for potential consumes of MediaFLO.

Sport? Loads of existing content? Experience with supplying 24/7 content? That's got to be BSkyB.

On top of this, it was obvious that Qualcomm is champing at the bit to announce which company is testing its mobile TV technology in Europe. What about handsets, though? MediaFLO has always been heavily associated with the US market.

Chandhok had already answered that question on a previous occasion. “Our work with leading handset manufacturers, such as Samsung, paves the way for UMTS operators around the globe to closely examine how a FLO-based service offering can take its mobile multimedia offerings to the next level,” he said.

Even Qualcomm's new CEO, Paul Jacobs, joined in the game by playing with a prototype of Samsung's combined W-CDMA (UMTS/3G) handset which also boasts a MediaFLO capability during Press interviews.

The only unanswered question is what frequency a European handset might utilise to receive TV pictures broadcast to it. The INQ would argue that a mobile handset receiving the signals from BSkyB's existing satellite would be too complex.

And Paul Jacobs gave us another clue. Qualcomm is working on creating a universal broadcast modem which would support all the standards for mobile TV – not just mediaFLO. So mobile network operators could conceivably supply handsets that let the consumer decide which mobile TV broadcast he or she wanted to watch. µ