Qualcomm and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) have announced that the broadcaster is to carry out its own evaluation of MediaFLO’s technical capabilities in a ten channel trial in the UK.
The BSkyB trial is Qualcomm’s first such deal in Europe, where it does not consider itself locked out, despite the presence of DVB-H. It is notable for being conducted not by a mobile operator but by a broadcaster itself.
Robert Fraser, a BSkyB spokesperson, said that BSkyB had been an active participant as a content provider in both O2’s DVB-H trial last year, and BT Mobio’s trial using DMB. The spokesperson said the FLO trial was an extension of Sky’s willingness to explore the capabilities to “further develop our range of services.” The difference in those trials was that they were hosted by a mobile operator in one case and a would-be wholesale mobile TV provider in another.
Explaining Sky decision to conduct its own trial in this instance, Fraser said. “Our involvement will allow us to evaluate the potential of the respective technologies,” When asked if Sky would then use the results of the trial to search for a partner using its preferred technology, or even build out its own system, he said he would not pre-judge the outcome of the trial.
But it seems likely that if Sky is convinced that the FLO meets its technical and business case demands, it would express that preference to any potential operator partner.
Omar Javaid, senior director of international business for MediaFLO said the move to partner directly with a broadcaster rather than an operator was not a sign that the company would consider it unnecessary to do a similar trial with an operator.
“Clearly wireless carriers are a critical part of the value chain. But we think this trial is a critical step in commercialising the technology.”
Javaid said that FLO’s multi-channel capability is an ideal fit for a multi-channel pay television provider.
Sky has had an exclusive deal with Vodafone to deliver content over Vodafone’s 3G network. That exclusivity period has just elapsed although the companies continue to develop services – the most recent being access to live sport.
Qualcomm has announced partnerships with KDDi in Japan and Verizon in the USA for the rollout of broadcast mobile TV services.