Mobile DTV Goes To Washington

Mobile-device owners in the Washington, D.C., area will soon have free mobile access to some of their favorite television shows, thanks to a new program slated for this summer.

People can tune in to American Idol and other shows under a pilot program being launched to bring free digital mobile television to devices, the Open Mobile Video Coalition announced Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas. The OMVC is an alliance of U.S. broadcasters focused on the development of mobile digital television.

Initially, Atlanta and Seattle have been chosen as the model markets in which to roll out industry trials of the program for research and development.

The consumer test in Washington will go live in late summer and will allow broadcasters to test their mobile DTV programming. The full commercial deployment of services is slated for later this year, according to the coalition.

In addition to stations owned by the coalition's members, 27 other stations have signed on to deliver live broadcasts. Affiliate stations of Fox, Ion, PBS, NBC and CBS will broadcast shows to mobile phones through LG Electronics, laptops from Dell, and automobile entertainment systems developed by Kenwood.

"The Mobile DTV ecosystem we are encouraging brings new opportunities to broadcasters, device manufacturers as well as consumers," said Brandon Burgess, president of OMVC and chief executive of ION Media Networks.

Rollout to Other Markets

A total of 28 television markets that broadcast to 39 percent of U.S. households say they will participate in the free mobile digital television programming, according to the OMVC.

The new technology will provide live, local and national over-the-air digital television to consumers via next-generation portable and mobile devices. Of the 63 stations slated, there will be 14 NBC affiliates, nine ABC affiliates, nine CBS affiliates, five FOX affiliates, and nine ION Television affiliates. Four...