A bun fight in Europe may affect how you ultimately watch TV in the palm of your hand.
Ah, you say, but I don't want to watch TV there. I like my 50-inch plasma display with the 7.1 channel surround sound.
Sure, sure, but then you're probably over 30 and have better things to do with your time then sit at the bus stop watching excerpts from Family Guy or some idiot dancing on YouTube.
But take a look at the Gen-Y types (born 1976-1995) waiting for their buses. Most have MP3 players stuffed in their ears and fingers on cellphones or other gadgets. Maybe there is money in this video-on-the-run stuff. Remember how we all laughed at ringtones - now a US$3.5 billion-plus worldwide market?
The recent mobile-TV dustup in Europe is classic EU bickering, with Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for information society and media, basically ignoring the advice of the European Mobile Broadcasting Council and the majority of Europe's broadcasters and telecom operators.
In an announcement at the giant CeBIT conference in mid-March, she anointed a particular standard (DVB-H) as her technology of choice. This miffed many companies that have spent a fortune on other, incompatible technologies, and want to see the various standards and formats duke it out.
Think VHS vs. Beta, but with about a half-dozen competing standards.
Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, you can already get video content on your cellphone. The mobility units of Bell, Rogers and Telus didn't wait for the standards wars to be decided. They already offer videos, provided your mobile device is capable of receiving and displaying it.
Rogers, Canada's largest purveyor of cellphone service, offers their personal TV for $20/month with a lineup of "at least eight channels" including CBC Newsworld, and, if you happen to be a Blue Jays fan, stats on that team and live audio of every game. It helps that they own the Blue Jays, so don't expect your favourite sports team to be up there unless Rogers buys them, too.
Telus TV, at $15/month, offers "the latest sports highlights, breaking news and up-to-the-minute weather reports" from sources including CBC Newsworld, Fox News and YTV.
Bell has signed agreements to offer "full-length, pay-per-view movies directly to video-capable mobile phones. They're offering new releases and classics from Walt Disney and Sony Pictures, with DVD-like controls and the ability to spread the viewing out over a 24-hour period.
Cost starts at $5.99/movie plus an unlimited data plan ($7/month.) And yes, you can take that important call while the kids are watching Bambi.
You probably won't be watching Debbie Does Dallas on your cellphone, at least not with the blessing of your wireless provider.
Telus got badly spanked recently when it tried to make a few bucks by offering racy videos, including those from Playboy, Hustler and Sex TV to its subscribers.
Among other critics, the Catholic archdiocese of Vancouver was preparing to consign the company to boycott hell. So Telus said 10 Hail Marys and dumped the whole idea.
Of course, what you do on your own web browser is up to you, provided the person on the bus isn't looking over your shoulder. More on that later.
All of these mobile-video solutions put you at the mercy of your wireless provider, which decides what you get to watch, what you pay and what kind of handset you need to have.
But if the success of everything from YouTube to Wikipedia has demonstrated, today's technology users don't like to be controlled.
That's the angle of Toronto-based Movidity, Inc. which offers movy.tv.
At first glance, it looks a lot like YouTube, with short videos that have been uploaded by members (membership is free.) However, as the company points out, it has proprietary technology that turns your content into "media objects" that can play on any Java-enabled cellphone, and, very soon it says, on BlackBerries.
That's an advantage over the limited lists of phones supported by Telus TV and similar services. Of course, YouTube is not unaware of the vast mobile market, and has tagged some of its content as mobile friendly. However, Movidity is making mobile video its core competence. The privately held company's CEO, Mauro Lollo, has 20 years' experience in various tech ventures.
A Movidity spokesperson noted that there are excellent business applications to their technology, such as the ability to broadcast a corporate meeting or press conference to a worldwide audience in real time.
Since a company is probably already paying for everybody's BlackBerries, it may as well force them to watch the boss make a fool of himself on camera. The cost would be zero for an open meeting that anybody could tune in to, though unrelated advertising might pop up. Movidity is working on a premium version that would allow a company to define a closed group of attendees, ditch the ads and use more advanced features.
A recent visit to the movy.tv website showed the highest-rated video was (sigh) the trailer for the movie Jackass.
Aside from what this says about the taste of the current movy.tv community, it's also a clear copyright violation.
Told about this, the company spokesperson said they'd look into it and that they regularly take down things that infringe other firms' rights.
Movidity recently announced integration of its technology with security cameras. Lollo says the ability to access security camera feeds "can add significant safety margins to anyone concerned with security monitoring, or for that matter, something as simple as the common 'nanny-cam.' " Sure it does. And with the ability to remotely pan, tilt and zoom a camera, the whole question of whether or not someone can watch Playboy or Hustler on the bus may become moot.
I hate to break it to the bishop of Vancouver this close to Easter, but there are some pretty naughty web cameras out there.
So if you ride the bus, bring along a good book and keep your eyes in it if your neighbour whips out his BlackBerry.
Web Watch: www.movidity.com (Tom Keenan is a professor at the University of Calgary and an expert on technology and its social implications. He can be reached at keenan@businessedge.ca)
