Mobile Television (Mobile TV)

What Does Mobile Television (Mobile TV) Mean?

Mobile television refers to television broadcasting over handheld or mobile devices. This new type of broadcasting is changing the market for television programming in many ways.

Techopedia Explains Mobile Television (Mobile TV)

One of the biggest aspects of mobile television is the provision of television broadcasts through smartphones. With smartphone adoption experiencing exponential growth, broadcasters are using systems like third-party pay-for-performance services and Internet portals to deliver television broadcasts directly through these portable devices. The cost models are different, but many of the underlying principles are the same. For example, 30-second ads have been integrated into these portals, so that the funding for the broadcasting remains essentially the same — pay for airtime on the part of large corporate sponsors.

Other kinds of mobile television are also being introduced to this broadening consumer environment. Mobile television is evolving from the traditional broadcast medium in the same way that cable television evolved from traditional network television. The difference is that the venues for broadcasts are being fragmented into different types of wireless networking setups.

Mobile television also involves different kinds of technical production. One is Wi-Fi or WiMAX, where TV broadcasts are streamed through the Internet. Other systems use terrestrial networks to send wireless or radio signals from terrestrial base stations locally. Other methods use existing satellite technology to deliver broadcasts. All of these tactical strategies support the versatile nature of mobile television, which may overshadow traditional cable television or satellite dish setups in the same way that today's smartphone carrier models have eclipsed the landline telephone service of the 20th century.