First Broadcast TV Phone Appears on MetroPCS
Story Highlights
Gigaom.comreports that TV broadcasters are making their own contribution to the growing mobile video market with Dyle, a service that plucks their programming out of the DTV airwaves and renders it on mobile phones and other small-screened devices. A Samsung Galaxy phone will be the first Dyle device.
Starting now, MetroPCS is in the free-to-air TV business, but the sets it’s selling are rather small, fitting not only into the palm of your hand but within the confines of a smartphone screen. MetroPCS on Friday began selling the Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G, the first U.S. smartphone to pluck local broadcasters’ TV signals out of the air.
You’re probably thinking you’ve seen this before in the guise of Qualcomm’s failed FLO TV service. But Qualcomm tried to create an entirely new digital multicast network for mobile phones and devices – and charge premium rates for the service. The Dyle mobile TV service MetroPCS is offering is the brainchild of the Mobile Content Venture, a consortium of local and network broadcasters, who are using their existing DTV airwaves and infrastructure to replicate their regular programming on the small screen.
Read more at http://gigaom.com/mobile/look-ma-tv-first-broadcast-tv-phone-appears-on-metropcs/
