Digital TV Facts: The Latest

A new smart phone that receives digital TV broadcasts should reach the U.S. market later this year. Modeo isn’t simply releasing a Windows Mobile 5-based handset, however. They’re rolling out a new mobile broadcast network based on DVB-H, an offshoot of the DVB-T digital terrestrial TV broadcast standard used in Europe. (Our ATSC standard for digital TV, despite its own benefits, isn’t well suited to mobile reception.)

The Modeo-branded phone, made by HTC of Taiwan, incorporates the MT2260 tuner from Microtune.

Modeo is currently putting in place the necessary equipment to broadcast a range of TV and radio channels into “select” US cities this year, followed by a broader roll-out in 2007. Modeo’s business model is unclear at this stage: is it looking to make money out of telephony services, which it hopes consumers will be more likely to make use of if they can watch TV on their phones, or hoping to offer its content on a subscription basis? Since it appears to be handling the broadcasting too, presumably it’s also looking to advertising revenue from spots in the content it will licensing from the major channels.

So, will this work as a business? Eventually, perhaps (and the folks who actually build something aren’t always the ones who profit). While consumer confusion over the various mobile TV and video offerings is a barrier to acceptance, a broadcast model makes sense in so many ways that it shouldn’t be dismissed.

I don’t know if this is a good omen or not, but Modeo’s broadcast operations center is based in Pittsburgh—the one city where, in TV’s earliest days, the DuMont network was a big hit.

• Links: Register; Modeo press release