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Washington D.C is first city to get free mobile DTV

20 April 2009 1:09 by Andre "DVDBack23" Yoskowitz | 5 comments

Broadcasters are set to announce later today that Washington D.C. will be the first city in the United States to receive free digital TV (DTV) broadcasts for their mobile phones, laptops and in-car entertainment systems.

The broadcasts using "mobile DTV" technology will hit the city in July or August and will come from the local affiliates of CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX and Ion.

At launch, the broadcasts will be identical to those seen on standard TV sets, including commercials.

The big question that looms however is what devices users will need to receive the signals. Mobile phones are prime candidates but the largest wireless carriers have their own TV services which cost money and have been very reluctant to sign up for the free broadcasts.

Among the large companies supporting the technology are Dell, Samsung, LG and Kenwood. Dell is expected to release a netbook with a built-in mobile DTV receiver later this year, and Kenwood is currently developing car-based receivers.

Before the end of 2009, broadcasters hope to beam their signals to two dozen other cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta.

Permalink to this article | Topic: IPTV

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21Q (Senior Member) 20 April 2009 7:20
I anticipate that the 3rd gen iPhone will have that included, if AT&T is willing to sign up for it that is. I'm not aware of any tv broadcasting in place from them either. The iphone also does have an add-on specially produced by softbank for such a service. But the device is pretty expensive, and is almost the size of the phone. [ + quote] This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 20 April 2009 7:33
xtago (Newbie) 20 April 2009 8:30
Old hat. Australia has been doing this for the last 3-4 years. 3 does a couple cable tv channels and some extras like playboy channel and it's own special channels etc. Telstra send out all the cable TV Foxtel Channels. ABC do a few of it's own channels and extras. These go out all over the country. [ + quote]
BobL (Junior Member) 20 April 2009 8:50
The US has had this nationwide for about 60 years! Until recently it was called NTSC channels 2-81/69, and now it is called ATSC channels 2-52. How is "mobile TV" different than standard over-the-air broadcast? And why do we need to repeat the identical programming on another set of frequencies? [ + quote]
Morreale (Member) 20 April 2009 16:05
Free TV? Free? WTF is this world coming to!? [ + quote]
Andy7472 (Newbie) 21 April 2009 1:26
No, only free tv if you're not actually playing it on a tv. That would make too much sense. [ + quote]