Play Ball!

Spring 2009. Ah Spring! Baseball, apple pie, enjoying TV. Portable TV at the backyard barbeque, at the seaside, at work, at the ballpark. Oh well, at least we still have baseball and apple pie. In this case, two out of three IS bad - and yet can still be avoided. Because on Feb 18, 2009 - all that changes. Those battery-operated analog TVs become collector items at best
and fluorescent night-lights at worst.

Portable TV was born in 1959 when both Admiral and Sony developed the first fully transistorized, battery TV sets. Battery life was just a few hours. Soon, cordless TV swept the nation as people saw photos of JFK watching a Sony on his yacht Caroline, or envied couples enjoying a ball game at the beach with the Admiral Safari TV.

Decades later, portable TV hit its zenith as affordable pocket sets with brilliant LCD color screens and many hours of battery life became impulse and blister pack buys at retailers and even drug stores and ballparks. Today's sets sport color LCD displays and hours more battery life than their 1959 pioneering cousins.

Today, Americans own upwards of 150 million portable TVs. More than 100 million pocket-sized sets and dozens of millions more battery TVs live in RVs, desk drawers at work, family emergency kits and backpacks. They are watched at school, the office, in the boat, on the train, in many limos and buses, at football, baseball games and NASCAR races in the stands and by tailgaters. Yet the number of these sets ready to receive all digital TV broadcasting is in the low thousands.

Over 90% of US consumers Envisioneering interviewed across the country this past year (11,000 miles of interviews) had no awareness that the DTV transition also meant their beloved battery sets would no longer receive anything but snow when broadcast TV goes all digital after February 17, 2008. Despite all the Public Service Ads on TV, they thought the digital transition affected only BIG screen TVs. Many told us, "AM, FM radio are still analog and portable...why would portable TV ever change??"

When Envisioneering interviewed consumers in the South - New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville - they said their "number-one use" for portable TVs was for storms & emergencies, including tornado alerts, hurricanes and ice storms. People look to portable TV for answers, weather maps, officials' guidance, salvation. When not anticipating emergencies, these sets are used in guest rooms, enjoyed on trains & buses, in family cars, vans and limousines. All receiving free over the air TV.

Today, only a handful of portable TVs with ATSC digital tuners exists- none yet "pocket" sized. Radio Shack is the prime retail distributor. Large-scale incorporation of digital tuners should add a dozen or so dollars to the cost of the sets, which can also serve as media players or iPod screens in larger than pocket sizes. Tens of millions of TV-tunerless media screens sell annually. So for a little more than a nickel a day, consumers can enjoy non-HD digital TV reception capability.

Ironically, sales of digital TV tuner "USB sticks" for laptop PCs and Macs are booming. Millions have been sold by Hauppauge Digital, Pinnacle and ATI, among others. Most are also "digital cable open QAM" ready, but it's their antenna portability that sells them best. Far more PC tuner sticks and boxes than portable TVs are being sold. These pack-of-gum-sized digital TV tuners already enjoy high profit margins, and retail for between $60 and $200.

Clearly, battery-powered digital tuners are available. Broadcasters can add broadcast battery TV digital program streams just as easily as they now send second, third and fourth channels of digital TV at lower than HD resolutions. Imagine pocket-watch to 12-inch sized screens which pick up free digital TV broadcasts with better picture quality and signal robustness than previous analog portable TVs. From iPod TVs to patio sets, guest room and sports event use, a screen and price for every audience and budget.

Most portable TV owners Envisioneering interviewed had seen or tried mobile phone TV receivers. Many said the "national" stations offered did not provide much local news and they expected cellular outages during emergencies while TV stations traditionally stay on.

TV advertisers spend $60 Billion to reach Americans annually. Viewers used to all be at home. But with a more restless society comes a growing mobile viewership. Reaching portable viewers is crucial to maintaining broadcast TV ad revenues. The minor broadcaster transmitter changes needed to send out one or a few portable TV channels should see advertiser payback recovery in months, not years.

In the near future, interactive ads made possible on dozens of millions of sub-$100 handheld media players/TVs and on tens of millions of replacement free over-the-air-TV-capable phone handsets will be even more valuable to free TV advertisers and broadcasters.

The good news is that extensive ATSC field tests of what may become the world's most robust pedestrian and vehicular broadcast TV system are proceeding at a fast pace. Eager broadcasters have formed the Open Mobile Video Coalition to serve portable DTV viewers and to set a foundation to
reach the larger audience which will emerge as additional TV manufacturers and broadcasters seize the day and play ball together. If enough broadcasters jump on board, then Spring 2009 could be the first season of many, serving eager, new, portable TV audiences all across America.

Play Ball!