Nine companies including NBC and Fox have banded together to make sure they are prepared as TV viewer-ship branches out to smartphones.
Joining NBC and Fox in the coalition will be Ion Television and a handful of other companies that are willing to use their own broadcast spectrum to hasten the switch. They hope the new mobile video service will eventually reach 150 million users in the United States across all major mobile service providers.
It may sound like a promising development, but the group will force phone makers to utilize new hardware in phones. I'm not entirely sure this will be a significant issue as consumers are willing to upgrade their phones - but it may take time before phone manufacturers are able to include the new hardware.
As more phone owners switch to smartphones, broadcasters see a new revenue stream that is expected to grow even more once the government and Silicon Valley work out issues related to the wireless spectrum.
Specifically, the Federal Communication Commission is using its National Broadband Initiative to increase the amount of video and other content consumers receive -- but some broadcasters have been hesitant to give up or convert their existing broadband spectrum.
NBC, Fox and the participating companies say that their designated broadcast spectrum for mobile TV is more efficient than the video streams currently used by content providers.
This new group will compete with the likes of Qualcomm FLO TV, MobiTV, and similar offerings from third-party companies. Verizon Wireless, AT&T and other wireless providers already offer some streaming video content to mobile phones. These existing services include sports highlights, news updates, and other video content.
