13-07-2012, 04:16 PM
Mobile television receives
[attachment=27583]
INTRODUCTION
Mobile television receives considerable attention in current debates on new media and communication technologies. Enthusiastic forecasts suggest an explosion in demand with more than half a billion customers subscribing to video services on their mobile phones by 2011 (ABI Research, 2006). However, in light of delays in the planned launch of services around the world and slower uptake by smaller numbers of users than many predicted, there is increasing skepticism about the hype surrounding mobile TV, as indicated by the theme of the opening panel of the Mobile TV World Summit (2008): “The death of mobile TV?” The technology is mainly at the trial and commercial launch stages. Its development will depend on technological, commercial, social, political, regulatory and other factors that are unclear; for example, the implications of the spectrum that will be released for mobile TV following the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting in the UK, content protection technologies, licensing frameworks, and development of profitable business models. It seems pointless, therefore, to engage in speculation about how the new medium will evolve, how mobile TV might be used and how the industry might develop, but it may be useful to understand how this emergent technology is currently constructed and understood; what claims and assumptions are being made about its anticipated impact on viewers’ experience and its implications for the industry. To this end, this paper explores current thinking about mobile TV, particularly how experts involved in the production, marketing, delivery and analysis of these services regard this emergent technology. The discussion is based on a review of published material on mobile TV (in English and Chinese), including industry and press reports,
WHAT IS MOBILE TV?
Different standards for mobile TV have evolved around the world, and the term refers to various technologies and forms. There are two main technological forms: streaming and broadcast. The former uses 3G networks to stream content to mobile handsets.’ On-net’ streaming or uncast is how most mobile operators currently deliver mobile TV. However, there are capacity issues related to streaming, and it is unlikely to be suitable for mass-market uptake, especially in situations where large numbers of viewers want to watch the same programmed simultaneously. Broadcast mobile TV, which includes various competing technologies such as DVB-H, DMB, BT Movie, DAB-IP, Medial and ISDB-T, is expected to eventually dominate the market, primarily because it does not have the capacity constraints of streamed TV (Kaul,2006). In this paper, we define mobile TV as encompassing live simulcast TV on mobile devices, providing content similar to that broadcast on regular satellite, digital or cable channels as well as original content. This definition includes on-demand video,
FOUR CONSTRUCTIONS OF MOBILE TV
‘TV in your pocket’, ‘in your hands’, ‘on the go’, ‘anytime, anywhere’ and ‘enhanced TV’, ‘beyond broadcasting’ (Meikles and Young, forthcoming), ‘delivering the future of broadcasting’ –are some of the terms and concepts being used to describe and market mobile TV services. They provide useful entry points into current ways of thinking about this emergent medium, particularly in relation to users’ experience and implications for the industry. We seek to unpack these terms to explore how mobile TV is shaped and understood in contemporary debate. We treat these discourses as constructions that make certain claims about the promise, opportunities and challenges of mobile TV – as content, form, experience and institution.
Digital TV
Mobile TV and mobile digital radio has been a challenge in North America, in part, because of the decision of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use proprietary systems instead of the principles of network neutrality. This sometimes leads to vendor lock-in by mobile phone companies and manufacturers.[citation needed][weasel words] The FCC chose the ATSC system for digital TV which, with the choice of 8VSB modulation, makes mobile reception difficult, because it is heavily prone to multipath interference (which changes rapidly in a mobile reception environment). ATSC-M/H was developed to allow for mobile reception, riding within each TV station's regular MPEG transport stream, and using heavy error correction to compensate for poor signals, while taking space out of the "bit budget" for each station's other digital and/or HDTV. In comparison with DVB-T, there is no hierarchical modulation to allow for LDTV reception, however, the use of MPEG-4 Scalable Video Coding coding in ATSC-M/H allows for scalable resolutions and frame rates.
TV anytime, anywhere
The concept of ‘TV anytime, anywhere’ highlights the release of viewers from one of traditional television’s most significant constraints: the need to be in a ‘place’ with television set, usually the home. TV anytime emphasizes users’ novel capacity to extend reach and range and to control, through their own volition, what content to consume, when, how and, where. Sodergard’s (2003, p. 63) study, for example, shows that independence from the traditional TV set was one of the key benefits cited by users of mobile TV
[attachment=27583]
INTRODUCTION
Mobile television receives considerable attention in current debates on new media and communication technologies. Enthusiastic forecasts suggest an explosion in demand with more than half a billion customers subscribing to video services on their mobile phones by 2011 (ABI Research, 2006). However, in light of delays in the planned launch of services around the world and slower uptake by smaller numbers of users than many predicted, there is increasing skepticism about the hype surrounding mobile TV, as indicated by the theme of the opening panel of the Mobile TV World Summit (2008): “The death of mobile TV?” The technology is mainly at the trial and commercial launch stages. Its development will depend on technological, commercial, social, political, regulatory and other factors that are unclear; for example, the implications of the spectrum that will be released for mobile TV following the switchover from analogue to digital broadcasting in the UK, content protection technologies, licensing frameworks, and development of profitable business models. It seems pointless, therefore, to engage in speculation about how the new medium will evolve, how mobile TV might be used and how the industry might develop, but it may be useful to understand how this emergent technology is currently constructed and understood; what claims and assumptions are being made about its anticipated impact on viewers’ experience and its implications for the industry. To this end, this paper explores current thinking about mobile TV, particularly how experts involved in the production, marketing, delivery and analysis of these services regard this emergent technology. The discussion is based on a review of published material on mobile TV (in English and Chinese), including industry and press reports,
WHAT IS MOBILE TV?
Different standards for mobile TV have evolved around the world, and the term refers to various technologies and forms. There are two main technological forms: streaming and broadcast. The former uses 3G networks to stream content to mobile handsets.’ On-net’ streaming or uncast is how most mobile operators currently deliver mobile TV. However, there are capacity issues related to streaming, and it is unlikely to be suitable for mass-market uptake, especially in situations where large numbers of viewers want to watch the same programmed simultaneously. Broadcast mobile TV, which includes various competing technologies such as DVB-H, DMB, BT Movie, DAB-IP, Medial and ISDB-T, is expected to eventually dominate the market, primarily because it does not have the capacity constraints of streamed TV (Kaul,2006). In this paper, we define mobile TV as encompassing live simulcast TV on mobile devices, providing content similar to that broadcast on regular satellite, digital or cable channels as well as original content. This definition includes on-demand video,
FOUR CONSTRUCTIONS OF MOBILE TV
‘TV in your pocket’, ‘in your hands’, ‘on the go’, ‘anytime, anywhere’ and ‘enhanced TV’, ‘beyond broadcasting’ (Meikles and Young, forthcoming), ‘delivering the future of broadcasting’ –are some of the terms and concepts being used to describe and market mobile TV services. They provide useful entry points into current ways of thinking about this emergent medium, particularly in relation to users’ experience and implications for the industry. We seek to unpack these terms to explore how mobile TV is shaped and understood in contemporary debate. We treat these discourses as constructions that make certain claims about the promise, opportunities and challenges of mobile TV – as content, form, experience and institution.
Digital TV
Mobile TV and mobile digital radio has been a challenge in North America, in part, because of the decision of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use proprietary systems instead of the principles of network neutrality. This sometimes leads to vendor lock-in by mobile phone companies and manufacturers.[citation needed][weasel words] The FCC chose the ATSC system for digital TV which, with the choice of 8VSB modulation, makes mobile reception difficult, because it is heavily prone to multipath interference (which changes rapidly in a mobile reception environment). ATSC-M/H was developed to allow for mobile reception, riding within each TV station's regular MPEG transport stream, and using heavy error correction to compensate for poor signals, while taking space out of the "bit budget" for each station's other digital and/or HDTV. In comparison with DVB-T, there is no hierarchical modulation to allow for LDTV reception, however, the use of MPEG-4 Scalable Video Coding coding in ATSC-M/H allows for scalable resolutions and frame rates.
TV anytime, anywhere
The concept of ‘TV anytime, anywhere’ highlights the release of viewers from one of traditional television’s most significant constraints: the need to be in a ‘place’ with television set, usually the home. TV anytime emphasizes users’ novel capacity to extend reach and range and to control, through their own volition, what content to consume, when, how and, where. Sodergard’s (2003, p. 63) study, for example, shows that independence from the traditional TV set was one of the key benefits cited by users of mobile TV