Mobile TV might just have been the most talked about service this year. On the one hand was the increased uptake in clip-driven, on-demand 3G services, which were given a boost by key events such as the World Cup, and the increasing number of handsets in the market. But perhaps more notable has been the increasing awareness of digital mobile broadcast. Digital mobile broadcast TV threatens to change the rules, adding value to a host of players in the industry, but also changing the dynamic of operators’ business. Operators also face tough decisions on technology, spectrum and which business model to adopt. Here, Keith Dyer speaks to Peggy Johnson, president of MediaFLO Technologies, a company dedicated to the commercialisation of its mobile TV technology.
Mobile Europe: Peggy, MediaFLO is already known to most of our readers as Qualcomm’s solution to provide mobile digital broadcast TV services. What do you make of the current market buzz around mobile TV and how MediaFLO Technologies is placed to exploit it?
Peggy Johnson: I think that there is just a great deal of excitement around mobile TV in general. People are beginning to see it as a cellular application. Nearly everyone watches at least a little TV, so there’s a huge natural demand. You know, you can do all the focus groups you like, but when you see people watch a MediaFLO handset you can see the engagement, so we are very encouraged by the demand.
MediaFLO Technologies is three years old, and in just a few short years we have done a monumental thing. Our engineers have developed the chip, the air interface, handset software, transmitter software, server side software and test equipment software. It’s a completely new system, almost analogous to the development of CDMA.
And in recent times, we have taken that development in some very encouraging areas.
In Europe we have announced a trial with BSkyB, in which it will be running MediaFLO in tests side by side with DVB-H — and evaluating both technically. That trial will be ready to start later this month [August 2006] and we are very encouraged about that because when BSkyB first looked at the landscape, we were the dark horse. But when we got out and demonstrated our capabilities that triggered their interest, so we are really excited at being part of that.
In Japan we are already planning a joint company with KDDI, and only this summer Softbank launched its own venture to look at MediaFLO. Again that’s encouraging because if there are two interested parties in a technology, that’s always likely to help a regulator and government in their decision.
At CTIA [March 2006], we had eight different handsets carrying MediaFLO from six different handset vendors, so we’ve got good traction there on the device side.
Just recently we’ve also seen the TIA acceptance of our air interface specification. We work very hard in that area, because we get branded as a company with proprietary technology and that is definitely not the case. But with MediaFLO we are much earlier into the standards process than in other areas, and the TIA has just ratified that.
And in the US the Verizon launch is the big impending thing. Its FLO network will be up to speed at the end of this year, and next year we will see the service launch.
Mobile Europe: You mentioned the engagement you see when people watch TV on their handset. What do you think is so engaging about the experience?
Peggy Johnson: The interesting thing is that TV has always been in your living room, but there’s never really been true interaction. That’s all been through shows like American Idol, where you can vote from your handset. But now we are talking about putting TV into the handset, and for the first time we are going to realise that true version of interactivity, all in the space of a mobile handset.
So we’re seeing the growth of a new, interesting technology which is about interactivity and personalisation. In my mind, TV on the handset will be as ubiquitous as camera phones are now.
Mobile Europe: Granted that compelling, personalised and interactive interface, what do you think broadcast TV will mean for operator business cases?
Peggy Johnson: What will be different for operators is that it’s not just about streaming, so there will be different questions for operators to ask themselves. If I have an IPTV play, or web presence, how can I take advantage of that?
Operators are taking fixed mobile convergence seriously, and as they introduce more and more services, they don’t want customers to leave their world, whether that’s on their handset, TV or PC. So they are also looking at extending the handset software back to the PC or to the set top box. Operators are involved in all the technology and have to pull it together in a non-confusing way.
An example would be music, where there are strategies to integrate the handset and the PC. I have a feeling that a lot of mobile music strategies are not really providing a compelling service because they are not integrated with anything else in the user’s life.
Mobile TV offers operators the chance to integrate this compelling application with other areas of user activity, on and off the handset.
Mobile Europe: So there really is an opportunity to shift the relationships in the value chain, and in the operators’ business case?
Peggy Johnson: The value chain for broadcast mobile TV includes operators, content providers, broadcasters, MVNOs and other distributors. There’s got to be value for all these so everyone will want to see growth. For mobile operators, far from mobile TV seeing them cede customer relationships to other brands, say a media owner, they can use the opportunity to strengthen their customer relationships, and derive higher revenues.
Sky, for example, is already working with Vodafone on streaming video services, and now they are ready to look at broadcasting their bouquet of content. They have a good working relationship with Vodafone, they have the billing relationship, and so why not take that into broadcast?
I can see what the MVNO space is trying to do. Big brands love to be able to reach to their consumers and engage in a new way, but that is different to being a wireless operator and doing all the difficult things wireless operators have to do. It might be easier for a big broadcaster to take it up a level and present their content to consumers through the user interface rather than become a wireless operator themselves.
Mobile Europe: There are, of course, different technologies out there for providing mobile broadcast TV. Given the areas you have identified, why do you think MediaFLO is well-placed to meet operator needs?
Peggy Johnson: : I think in some regards when people talk about mobile TV they think of DVB-H because they were there ahead of us. And there is a tendency with some in the wireless industry to see this as a handset factor —that it is just about adding another application to the handset.
We took a different perspective and said, “This is going to be pay TV”. If you are a pay TV provider wouldn’t it be great to get more subscribers, and grow your subs base by pushing into wireless? That makes them a very motivated player in value chain. And because it’s not about free to air, that’s a very exciting opportunity for the operators.
But on the DVB- H side, it’s more about having another cool feature on your phone, whereas we have approached mobile television by saying that great content can be extended out to the wireless device.
That’s why we think we have a good position. It goes back around to the technology and the fact we built it from the ground up.
When we built the technology we asked what a good experience for the consumer was. Just what is it the consumer is going to want? We started there and built outward; and that meant we optimised the system for low latency on channel changes, and to run on a standard battery.
In fact the battery was the thing that QUALCOMM got asked about the most. So we realised the service has to run on a standard battery, with three to four hours’ viewtime. QUALCOMM’s commitment to try to reduce the power that LED displays consume is evidenced in the acquisition of Iridigm, a company dedicated to research in that area.
It’s interesting. Operators may not be as concerned with those things but broadcasters will be. They want the user experience to be the best it can be so people will watch their content.
Mobile Europe: How can operators blend unicast, on-demand services, with their broadcast services? Need users even know what channel they have been delivered content through?
Peggy Johnson: Operators know that they are working with limited resources. Whatever spectral limit they are working within, there’s always going to be a limit on how much mass market content you can send. So if it’s limited, as we’ve said, the first thing is you need to have the technology that will allow you to attract the best content available. But you also need to have a mechanism to cope with subscribers with all manner of likes and dislikes.
MediaFLO has a Distribution Service which is about the ability to be complementary in that regard, for operators to feed in content and intermix services, to use the most efficient way to get content to the end user, whether that’s down the cellular pipe or through broadcast.
The introduction of the next generation, simplified all-IP network infrastructures requires matching advances in the operational processes and systems that create, deliver and monetize the services that run over these networks. The co-operation between the two organizations will facilitate the delivery of solutions that directly address the operator needs in managing these networks.
The NGMN Alliance is an initiative of a group of leading mobile operators, technology vendors and research institutes. This initiative complements and supports the work within standardization bodies by providing a coherent view of what the operator community is going to require in the decade beyond 2010.
The TM Forum is well positioned to address the requirements for managing end-to-end all-IP networks. The global industry association already has significant experience in addressing both business and technology challenges for operators, having developed a mature set of best practices and standards which are widely adopted across the industry. TM Forum Frameworx, which includes the Information Framework(SID), Business Process Framework (eTOM), Application Framework(TAM) and software interfaces, will be considered the foundation for meeting the operators’ needs.
NGMN and the TM Forum agreed to work together on Operational Efficiency enhancements for next generation multi-technology networks in a joint project. The project aims to: Define deliverables and timelines within TM Forum to support the NGMN Operations Requirements for next generation mobile networks; Address the wireless-wireline convergence aspects of the operational requirements; Under the umbrella of NGMN, achieve collaboration with other standards forums, e.g. 3GPP, in the area of NGMN Operations Requirements for next generation multi-technology networks
“Self-optimising capabilities and standardized O&M systems are essential for the successful operations of next generation mobile networks,” said Dr. Peter Meissner, Operating Officer of the NGMN Alliance. “We will work together with TM Forum to ensure broad, industry-wide support and adoption of NGMN’s requirements and use-cases in those areas for the benefit of the whole industry.”
“With widespread broadband service all the way to the handset as next generation mobile networks will provide, scalability and customer satisfaction will be the keys to monetization of the network,” said Keith Willetts, Chairman of the TM Forum. “Working with the NGMN Alliance will provide us with an invaluable set of requirements firsthand so that the standards that will enable cost effective and flexible operating environment are ready for the market, when the market needs them.”