NSN, Samsung, SES Americom and others are backing a new mobile TV technology, one that uses the broadcaster’s, not the carrier’s, spectrum

LAS VEGAS—If FLO and DVB-H weren’t enough, a new mobile TV broadcast technology has emerged on the already crowded scene. Despite the lackluster adoption of mobile TV so far, the new standard’s backers feel their latest project has an edge: Instead of calling for a new network and new spectrum, it rides over broadcasters’ existing digital transmissions.

Called Advanced-Vestigial SideBand (A-VSB), the technology is a backward-compatible enhancement to the U.S. broadcasting industry’s existing digital TV transmission systems. The platform takes the broadcast streams that any local TV affiliate tosses over the airwaves, transcodes them into a smaller handheld screen format and transmits them side-by-side with its normal programming—similar to the way ABC would broadcast both high-definition and normal digital versions of the show.

All of the prohibitive investments that have limited mobile TV don’t apply to A-VSB, said John Godfrey, vice president of government and public affairs, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show. The broadcasters can use their existing airwaves, they won’t be usurped by operators and can use their existing content and broadcast gear, he said.

“The broadcasters already have the spectrum—they don’t have to acquire new spectrum,” Godfrey said. “They already have the transmitter—they don’t have to buy new transmitters. The equipment upgrades are modest. They already have the content that consumers want, local content.”

The technology emerges from the Open Mobile Alliance, but it was invented by Samsung, which not surprisingly is its lead proponent. That sort of situation could easily draw comparisons to Qualcomm and Forward Link Only (FLO). Qualcomm created its own proprietary mobile TV technology, but then standardized it under the auspices of the FLO Forum. Samsung went the same route with the OMA, but it’s also attracted at least one other major player to its cause. Nokia Siemens Networks, one of the biggest backers of Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) technology, has joined Samsung’s initiative, as has SES Americom, the TV satellite transport company that backed Aloha Partners’ original plans to launch DVB-H services before it sold its spectrum off to AT&T. Rounding out the partnership are radio test and measurement company Rohde and Schwartz and, oddly enough, MobiTV.

MobiTV has made its name by unicasting real-time TV over operators’ networks and has been dabbling in other multicast and unicast technologies such as DVB-H and WiMAX. While MobiTV has commissioned some of its own content for its 55 channels, most of the programming comes directly from established TV broadcasters, which depend on MobiTV to deliver their feeds over the carrier’s network to the handset. By advocating a technology that would give the power to transmit mobile TV directly to the consumer, MobiTV would appear to be making itself obsolete. But MobiTV director of strategic alliances Alan Moskowitz said A-VSB will do exactly the opposite.

Putting the mobile version of broadcast content back on broadcasters’ airwaves would free up much more expensive multicast and unicast networks to offer premium content, Moskowitz said. And while the content ABC, NBC or Fox may distribute over its A-VSB channels may be the same, the commercials may not be the same, he said.

“Let’s take a guy watching the 12 o’clock news at home on his regular TV an noon,” Moskowitz said. “He’s likely a guy who’s in between jobs or just laid off. Now let’s take a guy watching the same program on mobile TV. He’s likely be younger, employed and educated.”

MobiTV is entering into the A-VSB space as a business model partner, Moskowitz said. It will be exploring ways in which advertising can be tailored for mobile viewers, how interactive elements like polling and voting can be added to programming through a cellular connection and whether mobile viewers would be willing to pay for content they would normally get on their home TVs for free. If the business model pans out, Moskowitz said, MobiTV could find itself playing in three technology models: providing interactive and advertising services for regular broadcasters, channeling cable TV content over multicast networks such as DVB-H and using WiMAX and 3G networks to deliver video on demand.

“This is a great answer to the mobile TV question,” Moskowitz said.

Samsung said its A-VSB gear is currently being trialed by consumers in several U.S. markets, but it would not reveal which ones.