FLO TV losing money, Qualcomm looking for an out?
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 22nd 2010 2:22PM
posted July 22nd 2010 2:22PM
So it seems that founding and operating a broadcast mobile TV business is no mean feat: as mocoNews points out, there is spectrum to be purchased and transmission towers to be networked -- all before you can sell electronics manufacturers on carrying your chipset in their devices. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, it looks like FLO TV has been something less than profitable, a reality that CEO Paul Jacobs owned up to in the company's Q3 conference call. What is there to be done, then? Jacobs been decidedly tight-lipped, only saying that there have been "a lot of interesting discussions" and that it (whatever "it" is) will go down "in the next year." As the AP points out, there are a few possibilities: the business could be sold to a third party, for which Qualcomm would supply the chipsets. Qualcomm could acquire a company that already supplies mobile services (GPS or satellite radio, for instance) that wants to add mobile TV. Or, with spectrum being at such a premium, they could just shut down the network and use the spectrum for something else. It'll be interesting to see what happens, although we're pretty sure what won't happen: we probably won't be buying a Personal Television any time soon.
Add GPS, web browser, facebook app, and email to this thing if you want to sell more than 10.
@iRaNDrOiD i didn't see this device going far from launch. considering that phones have had the ability to stream live TV for years now. at least Sprint has been able to that i know of. sorry FLOTV, your were too late :/
This isnt surprising...
@Ander0id - Exactly!
F-LOL TV...
Drop the price to $5 a month and people will probably sign on.
What's all this fascination with a flat-chested little girl?
On a serious note, I kinda wanted them to succeed. Hope this isn't true...
First UMB now FediaFLO? Qualcomm ain't doing so well.
*Forgets that they manufacturer the chipsets in just about every mobile phone out there*
Oh wait..
really they thought this would catch fire?
in the age of HD having a portable non HD TV... what did they expect?
I think everybody saw this coming, since the super bowl ads a couple of years ago. I can't think of to many situations i would use a FloTV.
I really don't know why they decided to go with having their own spectrum rather than operating as an IPTV service. They could limit the costs of operating their service to that of internet bandwidth and procuring the content.
The service was good. The pricing tho was an epic fail.
The Flow tv was one of those devices I though was cool, but knew I would never buy.
@ssgadget Bieber fever *and* adding more money to watch TV on the go on top of the insane prices for cable or satellite dishes. I barely think what I already pay is worth it let alone adding to that cost.
The implementation is poor. I had this available on my old LG Voyager for a whopping $15 a month. The coverage was awful anywhere I went outside of my New York City residence. It just wasn't worth it. Maybe if the had this on smartphones like the Droid for $5 and better coverage, I'd reconsider. Until then, I won't miss this at all.
I say shut it down and use it for something else.
@Blippy0524 I agree, wasted spectrum..
Wow what a f'n shocker...I knew this was stupid the minute I heard about it. Shut it down and use the spectrum for something else.
@DoctarPeppar Up ranked!
Is ANYONE surprised?
@mynameisjay im surprised its still on the market.
Get better channels, and make a widescreen unit
wtf is FLO TV?
@MrGoodCat "wtf is FLO TV?"
I think it's just regular TV on the go but they wanted sound gansta so Flo it is.
This will never work.. who has 30 mins to an hour to kill on the road??.. Unless your just really rich an lounge by the pool once a week this is pointless.. The only possible savior for this is car integration.. And I don't know if coverage is big enough for that..
Sad to say, but I won a free FLO-TV with 6 months of service in their sweepstakes.
I thought it would be great for use on our (then) upcoming vacation. Whoever wasn't driving, could watch TV, RIGHT?
WRONG! The coverage is horrible, and even in large cities the connection is lost and the sound gets all broken up.
All in all, I've used it 6-12 days out of the last 6 months, and been disappointed with it every time. There is no DVR capabilities, so like a normal tv you are stuck watching whatever is on at that time, and the channels (like Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, etc) are not showing the same shows on the FLOTV network as the same time as regular broadcast.
If I had not gotten this thing for free, I would be terribly upset with the product.
Oh, did I forget to mention that you have to pay a minimum of $10 per month with a 12 month subscription for this piece of crap service?
Glad to see it on its way out. QC was always trying to abuse its market dominance in chipsets by forcing manufacturers to include FLO TV support in devices as a way to propel FLO TV forward as the dominant mobile broadcast technology. This despite the clear dominance of other technologies globally (e.g. DVB-H). Of course none of these technologies is really doing so hot now but QC's move then was clearly just a way to keep all the $$ for themselves rather than trying to support any consumer-friendly global standard, so I say good riddance.
@ssgadget The only way mobile TV is going to take off is if it is free like it is in Asia. Local broadcast affiliates should be broadcasting using the new mobile video standard as a way to increase eyeballs and ad revenue. Then, once handsets start supporting it, maybe will it take off.
No shit FloTV is losing money... this is the worst idea ever. Do they know most of the cellphone carriers already give you TV for free?! Might not be as complete, but people aren't going to pay extra for the little more this offers.
maybe Peep will buy it..
@crow610 call it PeepnFlow
FLO TV has no closed captions. Screw them. I'll go with whoever has CC capabilities.
@cdf74dc9 Flo tv is satellite tv on an touch size screen
Hey Flo, say hello to Kin for me when you get there.
old.
@manofchao5 Not quite satellite. It uses MediaFLO, Qualcomm's standard of broadcasting technology. This is the technology AT&T uses for AT&T Mobile TV. Qualcomm owns and operates FLO TV, however (something I knew would never actually be successful).They would be wise to either sell the service to AT&T or Verizon or to simply shutdown and sell the spectrum.
Well.. Flo TV is a loser from the beggining...
And Free tv is not possible because there is no law that supports it. TV channels are guarded by many large companies that owns tv infrastructure... and broadcasting networks like Time Warner
with out the support of major channels.. the likelyhood for this to succeed will plummet. In addition to this, there is no accurate way developed to calculate the amount of cellphone/mobile viewers. Without the ability to count the viewers... then the channels will be worth less to advertisers. Because they dont know which show is performing. Also the mobile service and traditional method will canabilize each other.
If only they foresaw the coming of ATSC-M/H...