Broadcasters, Telco Each Have Problems With Mobile Video

It seems that both broadcasters and telcos think that the mobile TV industry is too fragmented/segmented to be viable, although their complaints are about different things. Xchange mag quotes HBO and Verizon at the NAB 2007 conference… “There are no standards in the industry,” said HBO CTO Robert Zitter. “That makes it extremely expensive for us to deal with diverse formats. I said this last year, too. This situation needs to change if the [wireless] industry is going to thrive.” Meanwhile, Verizon is getting tired of dealing the the host of rights issues that hamper video across multiple platforms: “Content licenses are negotiated on a platform by platform basis,” Chan said. “I understand that there are sliced and diced to optimize revenues, but this [practice] needs to dissolve for things to work. Customers need to know that devices can work together.” That’s only two companies, but it echoes what I hear at conferences I attend.

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