Qualcomm’s MediaFLO managed to find a little wiggle room in the digital TV transition delay, announcing today it has filled mobile TV coverage holes in 16 markets and expand into 3 completely new markets despite broadcasters have another three months before they must vacate Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum.
Qualcomm is taking advantage of the fact that many broadcasters have gone forward with their plans to shut off their analog signals on Feb. 17 as originally planned. Those decisions may have left some of their digital-TV-less viewers in the lurch, but it gave MediaFLO the opportunity to go ahead with its expansion in several markets. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, only one of those stations was in one of the four major cities missing from its major metro market footprint, and that station–KFTY in the Bay Area–was only one of three that needed to go dark before MediaFLO could go live in San Francisco. That means Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco will have to wait until after the June 12 cut-over.
In a recent interview, new MediaFLO chief Bill Stone said the DTV delay was disappointing, considering the investments Qualcomm has made in spectrum, network rollouts and marketing. Ultimately MediaFLO’s plans would only be delayed, he said, not permanently harmed. “There were a set of rules put out, and then the rules got changed,” Stone said. “In terms of the FLO business, it’s a speed bump. It’s not anything hugely problematic or catastrophic, but in the immediate term, it is really unfortunate, because it’s not allowing us to go out with a truly national message in the big markets.”
The new markets MediaFLO is launching are Atlantic City, N.J.; Greensboro, N.C. and Wilmington, Del–by no means tiny cities but nowhere near the size of a Boston or San Francisco. Most significantly MediaFLO will be able to complete or expand its coverage footprint in 16 existing markets. By having only partial coverage in some major metro areas, MediaFLO was put in the odd position of marketing a service in a city it couldn’t full serve. The markets are: Austin, Texas; Baltimore/Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Dallas, Texas; Jacksonville, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo.; the greater Los Angeles area; New York City; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; Reading, Pa.; San Antonio, Texas and St. Louis, Mo.
In total that expansion amounts to only 10 million customers, which is only a fraction of the 200 million pops it plans to cover by year end. With the new networks, MediaFLO should have footprint covering 140 million pops, giving it only six months to cover the remaining 60 million by year-end
