ATSC developing its own mobile DTV broadcasting standard
Squarely falling into the "you've got to be kidding" category, the Advanced Television Systems Committee has just announced that it will be developing its very own standard to "enable broadcasters to deliver television content and data to mobile and handheld devices via their DTV broadcast signal." In case you weren't aware, the world is quickly becoming over-saturated with hordes of other mobile television protocols, and just like the other guys, the forthcoming ATSC-M/H standard will be backwards compatible, which will allow "operation of existing ATSC services in the same RF channel without an adverse impact on existing receiving equipment." Among the services it hopes to channel are ad-supported (free to the user) television broadcasts, elusive "real-time, interactive services," subscription-based TV, downloadable content for on-demand playback, and there's even the potential for "real-time navigation" niceties in the future. Still, we're sure the standard will find a way to operate just fine, but unless a bidding war breaks out and the cost for mobile TV plummets due to all this competition, we're not really sure all these like-minded options are entirely necessary.
[Via MocoNews]
