Radio and TV station executives and industry groups are seeking to get chips inserted into mobile handsets to extend the reach of their respective programming. And they may do it with federal help as a public safety issue.

Emmis Communications President and CEO Jeff Smulyan, speaking at WMS ’09 in Washington D.C. said radio chips beat cell towers in cases of emergency communications, and can be put into every mobile phone for 50 cents or less – a message he had just been pushing in a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. The entire installation would be just $1-2 per phone.

“Cell systems jam,” said Smulyan. “They’re only geared to take calls from 32 percent of the population, or something like that. But in an emergency, that goes up to 90 percent.”

The radio chip would have natural business extensions for the radio industry, in addition to providing emergency communications, added Smulyan. “It would change the perception of the (radio) industry as a dinosaur.” And it would be in the public interest because it would defend radio’s localism. “If you hear a song on the radio (over your phone), you could download it,” he said. “That’s just one application we’re talking about.

Radio over a mobile phone would also be more appealing than streaming over the Internet because “streaming is very expensive. You have to serve the whole world. But with a chip, you would only serve your local marketplace.”

Meanwhile, the TV folks are also itching to get a chipset onto mobile devices. Anne Schelle, Executive Director of The Open Mobile Video Coalition, said that Digital TV viewing is measurable, has unlimited capacity, and costs less than a penny an hour for each viewer. It stands in start contrast to dedicated Mobile video channels, which can only handle 25 streams at a time, and have network costs of $4.00 an hour.

Jerry Fritz Senior Vice President, Allbritton Communications,said broadcasters have the right plan, but the logistics will be a challenge. “You have to have five things go together,” he said. “You have to develop the measurement of mobile use. You have to have the manufacturer install the chip. And the broadcaster has to acquire the bandwidth.”

New digital technologies using ATSC-DTV standards are redefining the TV experience and enabling new business models, says Glenn Reitmeier, VP of Tech Standards and Policy for NBC-Universal, who was speaking at BIA’s Winning Media Strategies conference  in Washington D.C. “We are at a really exciting phase” akin to General Sarnoff’s use of radio receivers to redefine the radio industry.

Reitmeier says that what we’re seeing is a new software-based environment that acts as “an application  framework” allowing such features as conditional access, subscription pay per view, digital rights management content downloads. When that is combined with interactive channels, a whole new world opens up, including voting, social networks, ecommerce and targeted ads.

The advances will enable broadcasters to reclaim their fundamental advantage by 2015, says Reitmeier. But it isn’t about the home TV. Fundamentally, consumers just want content on any screen. Devices such as video enabled phones are exploding, helping achieve growth from this “very mature business.”Non- real time services are also an important part of the equation, including on demand and cllipcasting, targeted ad insertion, and location based preference codes.

Mike Bloxham, Director of Insight and Research at the Center for Media Design at Ball State University, speaking on the same panel, continued on the same theme.  Indeed, a recent study by The Center quantified 65 different categories of media consumption using four types of screens: TV, computers, mobile and “other,” including GPS, in-screen navigation etc.

While digital has added diversity at every demographic, Bloxham is quick to note that live TV still dominates and is used 318 minutes per day on average.  That includes more than an hour of commercials – more time than is spent viewing news.

Pundits who have written off live TV in favor of the Internet, game consoles and Digital Video Recorders are getting ahead of themselves, he notes.  It hasn’t happened yet. Those media are used far less. “Television is a very solid business for many years to come,” says Bloxham.

At the same time,  “television” now consists of a mish mash of each platform. There are no ‘TV companies’ anymore, he says.  “There is ‘platform promiscuity.’ Consumers don’t care in the slightest if programs coming in via telcos, mobile whatever. “

It’s not enough to just have a web or mobile presence, it really is about having an overall strategy and how you execute on that strategy that determines “success” versus “also ran.”

We’ve got a great line-up of speakers at Winning Media Strategies 2009, May 20-22 in Washington, DC that will provide insights, information and case studies to help you develop your strategies and plan your integrated execution when you get back to work!

Rick Ducey
Chief Strategy Officer
BIA Advisory Services