By BRIAN DEAGON, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Investor's Business Daily
Jun 11, 2009 18:37 EST
The U.S. market for live TV on cell phones has been a dud, but it will get a shot in the arm Friday.
That's when Qualcomm (QCOM) — using some of the airwaves now available to it with the switch to all-digital TV broadcasts — will expand its live TV service to another 15 markets. And 24 others will go live later this year. In all, a service now available to 140 million people will be available to 200 million.
Qualcomm announced its Flo TV service, then called Media Flo, in 2004. It's investing $800 million in the project, but that excludes the more than $550 million it paid last year for some of the TV airwaves being vacated.
Flo TV is resold by Verizon Wireless as V Cast Mobile and by AT&T (T) as Mobile TV for prices starting at $15 a month. But neither Qualcomm nor the carriers have said how many users they've signed up. It's believed to be few — for now.
Viewing live TV on cell phones "is not knocking the socks off people right now," said Joe Saracino, Verizon's vice president of marketing. "But there is potential for video services on mobile devices to be a pretty big market."
The Qualcomm service had been available in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and about 60 other markets. On Friday, Boston, Houston, Miami, San Francisco and 11 other markets will be added. The other 24 markets will gradually come aboard during the year.
AT&T and Verizon, which pay Qualcomm to use the Flo TV service, will start offering their live TV services in these new markets within weeks, the companies said.
Flo TV is capable of delivering both live and time-shifted programs from CBS (CBS), NBC, Fox, CNBC, Nickelodeon, MTV and various affiliates of those networks. ABC is the one major holdout.
Live mobile TV is popular in South Korea and Japan. One reason is the large number of people who watch TV on handsets while commuting via public transportation, says Jeff Orr, an analyst at ABI Research.
Besides the fact that most people in the U.S. drive to work, he says a couple of factors have slowed the U.S. market. For one, people are reluctant to add another monthly subscription fee. Also, most cell phones aren't technically equipped to handle live-TV programs. Verizon and AT&T each sell just two such models.
Verizon was first to launch its mobile TV services, about two years ago. AT&T launched its service a year ago.
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