Boston Globe
Despite the recent failure of Qualcomm’s FLO TV service, broadcasters still believe there is a consumer market for mobile digital television programming.
The Globe’s Hiawatha Bray writes that Boston public TV station WGBH has been broadcasting a mobile signal since March. It’s one of 100 stations across the country doing so:
“Industry analysts say there’s a vast potential market for mobile TV devices. In 2009, the technology research firm In-Stat LLC estimated that 18 million people worldwide watched free mobile TV and predicted that by 2013, the number would rise to 314 million. For now, mobile TV is mostly popular in Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea.”
Mobile TV faces significant competition from standard digital TV, as well as on-demand content from Netflix, BitBop and Hulu, which already target consumers on the Web, smart phones and tablets.
