Live TV on your phone: It's a start

(Above: A short video demo by yours truly.)

Two months ago I was standing in a midtown Verizon Wireless store when my friend Greg Maupins said to me, “A TV critic's got to have a cell phone with TV on it.”

To be sure, he was trying to sell me one -- that's his job. Still, I was moved by his irresistible logic, as well as by the intriguing swivel phone Maupins had in his hand. It was an LG VX9400, one of a new wave of wireless devices that carry streaming TV channels.

At $99, the price was right, and my VX9400 has proved to be quite the upgrade. It also has Internet browsing and a memory card slot that lets me carry around hundreds of MP3 files. I tell friends that I now own the “poor man's iPhone.” But truth be told, my phone has something Apple's doesn't. It's that long-promised Holy Grail of mobile media: the ability to have an actual TV-watching experience in the palm of your hand.

Verizon launched the service, called V CAST Mobile TV, in April, just in time to be run over by iPhone hype. Sprint offers a competing service from MobiTV, with some of the same video providers and some Verizon doesn't have.

When I my press the TV button on my phone, there's a pause, then I see a familiar-looking schedule grid. (If you want to see more pictures of my videophone, go to KansasCity.com and click on TV Barn.) The grid tells me what's on right now. Right now the lineup consists of CBS, two NBC channels, Fox, ESPN, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. For the most part, CBS, NBC and Fox simulcast their prime-time lineups at night, then fill the daytime hours with repeats of their late-night talk shows, sports programming and even syndicated reruns like “Star Trek.” ABC is missing because it didn't do a deal with Verizon. Sprint's MobiTV offers these channels plus Discovery, TLC, ABC News Now and C-SPAN, among others.

With TV at my side all the time, I've found myself browsing the grid whenever I have a moment. I've seen as many episodes of “The Bionic Woman” on my phone (two) as I have on the real NBC. I'll watch my ESPN habit, “Around the Horn,” when it's on, or the daily 11 a.m. repeat of last night's Letterman on CBS.

If you decide to buy one of these, however, I predict it will have less to do with what's on than how it looks. People never fail to comment on how sharp and clear the picture is on my LG screen, which measures just over 2 inches diagonal. The screen is letterbox when it's swiveled 90 degrees (the swivel design hides the keypad, a weird but stylish design trick). Just about everything looks crisp on it -- I can even read the tiny ESPN ticker -- but programs shot in HD look the best. The quarter-inch speaker on the back of the phone is amazingly robust. The phone's rubber underside allows a firm grip while you watch, though the optional holster doubles as a stand, so you can actually prop the phone on a table and watch or listen hands-free.

NBC seems to have thought out its mobile TV platform better than any network. Its news channel is live 24/7 and switches between MSNBC, CNBC and NBC (which simulcasts “Today” and “NBC Nightly News”). The entertainment channel has, in addition to NBC fare, select syndicated shows like “Blind Date” and cable shows like “Work Out” that NBC also owns. Best of all, when NBC's channels go to a break, we see short news stories instead of commercials.

NBC's news channel comes in handy even when I can't watch it. I often plug my phone into my car stereo, using the same adapter that came with my old phone. Finally, all-news radio in Kansas City!

Currently, Mobile TV is only enabled on two Verizon phone models, including mine. That's because Verizon set up a network for Mobile TV separate from the one I use to make calls. Heavy traffic on the phone network won't interrupt whatever I'm watching on my phone. That is, unless it's for me, in which case my phone flashes a message on the screen and gives me the option to take the call.

Driving south on I-35, the TV signal conked out just past Ottawa, though the phone and web coverage remained strong all the way to Wichita. More troubling is the spotty reception inside the Star. It's great up here on the third floor in FYI, but over by the second-floor business desk, even when I stand next to the window and extend the cute five-inch antenna, I'm out of luck.

The service tacks an additional $25 onto my monthly phone bill, though most of that was for unlimited Internet surfing. At that price, and with the limited range of channels, Mobile TV is not exactly poised for explosive growth. Tech columnists point out that if I lived in Europe, I would have more choice and probably pay less, because content providers there deal directly with consumers, whereas here they are at the mercy of four gatekeepers: Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. That's why some people were disappointed that Apple's new iPhone didn't come with streaming video capabilities, which would effectively break the cell cartel's grip on mobile TV.

Still, as a glimpse into the future, I like what I see on my phone.

Comments

[Mike Royce]

Great article. I have an iPhone and the only disappointment is lack of live video like this. I'm sure it's coming, though. Wanted to highlight one quote:

"...then [the networks] fill the daytime hours with repeats of their late-night talk shows, sports programming and even syndicated reruns like “Star Trek.”

This, along with countless other futuristic, fantastic, and currently unpaid-for reuses of material, is the main reason we writers are about to strike.

[Dewey]

I really do not understand why this is such a great idea. Who wants to watch a TV show on their phone? Rather, WHY does anyone want to watch a TV show on their phone? Go home, watch the TV show. Don't watch it on some tiny screen on a phone? Is your life that vacant that you can't get away from the TV for that long? And if you are watching it while you are driving, you should be certified as a complete idiot. We have enough trouble w/ people uselessly talking and now texting on their phones, let alone watching some lame TV show.

[Aaron]

Thanks grandpa! Hey, is it all right if Betsy and me come over to watch Flip Wilson with you on Thursday? I'll bring the Jiffy Pop!

[Dewey]

I guess the last comment was at me, but doesn't address the issue. Hey, I watch TV like anyone else, way too much probably. But why on earth would I want to watch it on my phone? If I'm watching it on a phone, it means I'm doing something else, because if I was home, I'd watch it on the big TV I just bought.

[Mike Royce]

Here are a few of the situations in which I wish I could watch TV on my phone:

1) waiting in line at the bank
2) sitting on a train
3) sitting on a bus
4) watching my kids at the pool
5) standing in line at the DMV
6) being somewhere in my house where there's not a TV (we only have two)
7) checking an actual football game instead of just the scores while I am somewhere without TV
8) watching a replay while at the actual sporting event
9) on hold with customer service
10) walking a picket line (tomorrow)

[Mark Roberts]

There are a couple of preconditions for mobile video to spread. The first is that the perceived nature of TV viewing will have to change, at least for some situations. Today TV is perceived much like a movie, a theatrical performance, etc: as a shared experience to be enjoyed in the company of others. Radio was once perceived this way too, but shifted to become a medium where communications are intensely and deeply one-to-one. Few people listen to radio together any more. The same thing could happen for *some* uses of TV, but not all. That's probably the point "Dewey" was making.

It does seem strange that we are moving to a world where media are consumed either on tiny screens or on huge ones.

The other precondition is that mobile networks will have to stop being closed and proprietary. The statement about ABC's not being available on the Verizon network is a perfect example. With an open architecture, it would be, and Verizon would still make its money on data transfers. Imagine if online communications had never moved past the CompuServe stage -- you got what you had in each vendor's walled garden, and nothing more. That's where mobile networks are today. Just as it took a fully open network for online communications to become pervasive, so too will mobile operators have to give up some control.

It's interesting that you mention Verizon. In the Bay Area, I happen to live in a location where I can't even get EVDO (and sometimes barely can get a workable voice signal from Verizon, though it's better than other providers I have tried). This sort of thing will remain out of reach for me for a while.

[Joe]

Haven't you ever heard of Slingbox/Slingplayer Mobile? Come on guy

(Yeah, and everybody who wants one has got one now. What's your point?--AB)