Mobile DTV: A technology in search of a business model

As more and more stations begin broadcasting part of their DTV spectrum to mobile devices, and about 70 stations have thus far, the required technology continues to mature and become more efficient. Now comes the hard part: finding a viable business models that will bring a reasonable return on the roughly $130,000 investment broadcasters have to make in order to get their systems up and running.

Looking around the industry, most stations are simulcasting their main DTV channel in an effort to figure out if consumers in their market are interested in a new mobile video service. Some, like WRAL-TV, in Raleigh NC, are getting a bit more creative. The CBS affiliated station there has spent the past year working on a project that integrates its mobile DTV signal with local ad-supported electronic monitors mounted in city buses. Jimmy Goodmon, vice president of CBC New Media Group, said the partnership between his station WRAL-TV, mobile solutions provider News Over Wireless, equipment vendor Harris Broadcast and the city of Raleigh could be financially beneficial to all involved. The beta phase of the project is now winding down, and Goodmon hopes to have a market-ready system in buses and other places to support a real-world service in early 2011. There's talk of using GPS technology to dynamically change ads as the bus travels through different parts of the city and approaches a sponsor's location. The station's parent company, Capitol Broadcasting Company, is considering other ways to monetize its mobile DTV signal as well.