Questions &
Answers
Mobile/Handheld
DTV Webinar
To listen to the entire
recorded webinar, please click here (Webinar requires Windows Media Player).
To view the
PPT of the slides click here.
To read the report, click
here.
Below are the questions that were asked during the
Webinar that we did not get a chance to answer directly. If you have a
question, or do not see your question listed, please contact Michael Hackmer by
email at: mhackmer@bia.com. We will
do our best to update these on this website, and on our blog when it is
released.
QUESTION:
How much additional revenue can be expected from M/H devices for a small market
TV station (market 200, mostly a farming community)?
ANSWER:
Our estimates are based on incremental viewing to local television stations on
these new M/H DTV devices. For your market, you’d need to (a) estimate the
number of M/H DTV capable devices that will be in use in your market; (b)
estimate the incremental hours of additional viewing your particular station
would attract from M/H users; (c) estimate the ability of Nielsen or some other
service to measure and report these ratings; (d) estimate your ability to
convert that additional viewing into sales revenue from advertisers.
QUESTION:
Gannett and Nexstar are holding off on committing to digital multicast networks
because they want to be sure to reserve enough spectrum for mobile TV. How much
spectrum will be available for multicasting after mobile TV is up and running?
ANSWER:
RD - This depends on several factors all related to each station’s “bandwidth
budget” and the particular M/H technology used. Generally, we would expect
stations interested in offering M/H services along with a mix of HDTV, SDTV and
datacasting services would allocate a minimum of 2 Mbps to M/H for some or all
of the broadcast daypart.
MF - The allocation of DTV bandwidth to different services is both a technology
and business decision. Owners and managers will want to consider the economic
return on their bit stream allocations among services. BIA has seen broadcasters
make different decisions based on strategic and tactical decisions related to
their company and their market environment.
QUESTION:
How was the 130 million ASTC-M/H enabled handsets by the end of 2012 reached?
How do you think best the broadcasters and the mobile network operators need to
cooperate to insure a successful ASTC-M/H launch?
ANSWER:
We detail our assumptions in the full report, which is available for free
download at
http://www.bia.com/mhdtv.
The mobile network operators, along with Google and Yahoo are pursuing an open
network policy which means the key factor now is to convince handset
manufacturers that there is a viable M/H DTV market and they should build this
capability into their handsets for operation on mobile networks. Further, given
the competition between cellular network operators, we believe that there will
be an effort to provide these services in order for one company to get a leg up
on the others.
QUESTION:
Do you see the penetration of M/HH devices in rural and small market areas being
significantly lower than penetration levels in large markets?
ANSWER:
Actually, on a per capita basis, M/H services may be more attractive in smaller
and rural markets than in larger markets which tend to be better served by
Wi-Fi, 3G networks and services such as MediaFLO.
QUESTION:
If the iPhone, arguably the most successful mobile adoption in history, only
captured 1/2 of 1% in its first year, how many different mobile phones will have
to adopt this mobile broadcast technology to get to 130MM handsets by 2012? How
long is the mobile phone development cycle and is it realistic to think that
there will be handsets on the market that carriers have approved within 6 months
of the standard being set?
ANSWER:
We go into specifics in the full report. But we were told by CE and handset
manufacturers that if they are convinced there is a viable ecosystem (content,
transport, revenues, retail distribution channels for handset, etc.) that they
can scale up for this level of operation. Our estimates were based on current
production levels, the key question is whether CE and handset manufacturers
would be motivated to install M/H DTV capability, not whether these production
levels are realistic, they are.
QUESTION:
Any concept of the kind of investments broadcasters can start thinking about
making to enable mobile TV transmission?
ANSWER:
Depends on the final system, but our sense is the investment relative to the
opportunity is relatively minimal, perhaps on the order of as low as $100K to
several hundred thousand dollars.
QUESTION:
What is the likely reaction of cellular providers (Verizon, Sprint, etc.) to
this? Try to kill it? Control it?
RD - Cellular providers have begun to accept some loss of control over their
networks and the inevitability of the move to “open networks.” For example,
Verizon will now certify 3rd party devices to operate on its network.
MF - In theory, cellular operators have much to gain from a M/H DTV successful
launch and would want to cooperate. They are in intense competition amongst
themselves and are looking for any type of service enhancement that would
differentiate their businesses. Even if they don’t participate at all or to any
great extent in the broadcaster M/H business model, a broadcaster success would
prove out the market for mobile video and stimulate VOD, subscription and other
mobile video models more open to the operators.
QUESTION:
Service providers, such as Verizon using MediaFLO, offer a nationwide service.
Broadcasters will have different content in each market, which is less desirable
for vehicular. How much of a disadvantage is this in your market estimates? The
conference number is not answering. Is there a problem with the bridge?
ANSWER:
Different content from each market is a huge plus for local broadcasting. As for
inter-market vehicular travel, we foresee the opportunity for services to
develop content hand-offs. To date, much of the mobile use is actually personal
use rather than vehicular use, so this may not be much of a disadvantage in the
short run. However, going forward a mix of local, regional and national services
will likely be necessary to fully address consumer (and advertiser) demand.
QUESTION:
On an early slide you stated Mobile Ad Spending would be $16.2 million. On later
slides you talk about 1/2 a billion to $1 billion in revenue for TV stations.
What was the $16.2 million?
ANSWER:
The smaller estimate was produced by market forecasters not even considering the
power of M/H DTV advertising and dramatically underestimated the potential we
modeled once you factor in DTV advertising sale potential.
QUESTION:
What types of audience measurement are possible other that diarys?
ANSWER:
To be determined, but clearly Nielsen with its Anytime, Anywhere measurement
goal would place mobile video measurement high in its priorities.
QUESTION:
Will we really be able to get Verizon, Sprint, etc... to offer these MP/H
capable phones? We may have to share our revenue with them, which in the first
few years will minimal.
ANSWER:
Assuming the open mobile network movement bears fruit, it is very realistic and
there may well be viable business cases where broadcasters do not share M/H
revenues with mobile operators. Also, remember that a cellular handset
manufacturer is part of two of the proponent technology consortiums.
If you have a question you would like our industry experts to answer, or
comments, please send them to Michael Hackmer at:
mhackmer@bia.com |
