It’s easy to be skeptical about Flo TV, Qualcomm’s effort to bring a mini cable system to your cellphone. The company offers up to 20 channels of TV for $15 a month and up. It is betting that consumers will value it even though more and more video content is available free on demand to any smartphone with streaming video capacity. What’s more, Flo only works on a handful of handsets available from AT&T and Verizon.
Bill Stone, who Qualcomm hired earlier this year to run its Flo TV business, said that the service has been too expensive. Especially because AT&T and Verizon tend to sell it in a package that includes other wireless video for $25 or $30 a month, half the price of a typical home cable TV bill.
“My view is that is shooting over the heads of the market,” Mr. Stone said.
Right now Qualcomm doesn’t set the retail price for service sold through phone companies. But later this year it will start selling directly to consumers with what Mr. Stone said will be more attractive prices. Customers will be able to subscribe on an annual plan for a price probably less than $10 a month. There may be one-day passes for something like $5 and month-to-month subscriptions in the $10 a month range, he said.
The company is also working on a way to get its TV signal onto iPhones, BlackBerrys and other phones that don’t have built-in receivers. It will sell a keychain size gizmo that will receive the television signals over the air and send them, over WiFi, to smartphones. (He declined to talk about price.)
It is also trying to figure out other gadgets that can use its receivers. These include portable game players, GPS navigation systems, netbook computers and backseat video systems.
Mr. Stone would not discuss how many subscribers had signed up for Flo. He noted that the recent switch from analog to digital television allowed Qualcomm to start using some spectrum it had bought on what used to be UHF channel 55. That increased its coverage to about 200 million people from about 150 million people, and it increased its signal strength in some of the areas it already served. Qualcomm had bought unused broadcast television licenses to start its service even before the digital TV transition.
But why does the world need linear television in an on-demand age? He said that current cellphone networks don’t have the bandwidth to allow millions of people to watch video at the same time. And he pointed out that right now much of the content on Flo — news, business news and sports — is not typically made available in real time on the Internet.
“Live will always exist,” he insisted. “If the Laker game is on now, I want to watch it now.”
Indeed, it now tries to have prime time networks shows on at the same time they are broadcast on the air, a contrast to Hulu and other sites that offer prime time shows the day after they are broadcast.
Mr. Stone said that over time Flo would add more interactive and on-demand features. It could add some content using the wireless data feed of some phones. Or it could record some programming that was sent overnight that could be played the next day.
It’s easy to see the appeal. You flip channels just as if you are watching TV. It couldn’t be easier or more familiar. But for some, this might be an easy way to while away time in the grocery line or the waiting room.
Mr. Stone said customers watch an average of 20 to 25 minutes of TV a day, generally in 3-5 minute chunks. The most popular content is news, children’s shows and stand-up comedy.
How much of a long-term mobile pay TV business is there for entertainment or news content? There will be too much out there that’s free. Sports is different, but we already see business models emerging to support streaming sports programming. But whatever the appeal, it’s going to do better if Mr. Stone can keep lowering the price and getting his service on more devices.
Comments are no longer being accepted.