Digital TV Conversion Clears Way for Qualcomm’s Flo TV Expansion to Boston, Other Markets

Qualcomm’s delayed plan to substantially expand the scope of its Flo TV service should finally take effect tomorrow, once television broadcasters in 39 markets turn off their analog transmitters and switch to digital TV broadcasts.

Tomorrow’s planned DTV transition will free broadband spectrum on what was UHF Channel 55 that will be used by Flo TV’s dedicated network. The company’s San Diego broadcast center transmits live and scheduled television news, sports, and entertainment programs nationwide to certain mobile phones on the Verizon and AT&T networks. The company plans to go live immediately in 15 new markets, including Boston, San Francisco, Houston, and Miami.

In an announcement today, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) says the change will enable Flo TV, a Qualcomm subsidiary, to offer its service to an additional 60 million customers and will expand its total reach to 100 U.S. media markets and more than 200 million potential viewers by the end of this year. Flo TV is currently available in San Diego, Seattle, and Portland.

Qualcomm unveiled plans to nearly double its service for Flo TV-enabled cell phones at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and planned to begin service in 40 U.S. markets after Feb. 17. That was the original deadline for TV stations to shut down their analog broadcasts and convert to digital technology. But Congress, with encouragement from the Obama Administration, postponed the planned digital TV conversion date until June 12.

Flo TV expanded its service in some markets that made the conversion early

Under an agreement disclosed in January, Flo TV said Audiovox would be the exclusive supplier of automotive electronic systems that will connect to existing video equipment, enabling passengers to watch Flo TV on the road. Audiovox also got rights to make the only Flo TV-ready video systems that drop down from a vehicle’s ceiling, as well as units that go into the back of head rests.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.