previously carried a single station’s analog broadcast. The optional service costs an additional $15 a month for customers using MediaFLO-equipped phones on Verizon and AT&T wireless networks.
Competitors are developing similar TV capabilities for mobile devices, but analysts say Qualcomm has had a lead that could erode if the digital conversion date gets delayed for too long.
“Unlike other companies, we are prepared to launch our FloTV service and turn on 100 new transmitters across the United States immediately after the transition to DTV,” Jacobs said. He estimated MediaFLO’s potential audience at 180 million viewers in 80 media markets. Qualcomm says the markets in Boston, Miami, Houston, and San Francisco that it has sought to exclude from any delay represent 40 million prospective customers. Cutting them out apparently would help the company salvage part of its investment.
The Obama Administration, however, has supported the proposed delay to June 12, arguing that millions of Americans are unprepared for the switch in broadcast TV signals from analog to digital. The Nielsen Co. estimates that over 6.5 million U.S. households still rely on broadcast analog TV signals. (TVs connected to cable and satellite would not be affected by the conversion.) A four-month delay would enable the administration to allocate additional funding for a program set up to help low-income families buy TV converter boxes they need to translate the broadcast digital signal into analog for older TVs.
The converter boxes cost between $40 and $80 apiece. The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration was providing coupons that gave consumers a discount on the price. But government financing arranged for coupon reimbursements hit a $1.34 billion limit, so the agency now is only sending out new coupons as older, unredeemed coupons expire—freeing up more money.
As Qualcomm’s Jacobs put it, “We expect further developments.”
