Recently in UPS Category

IN another first, INQUIRER.net (subsidiary of the Philippine Daily Inquirer) st arted broadcasting news to mobile television last December 8. "The Scoop" is a five-minute daily newscast of the day's top stories and is air ed on the GO Channel of Smart Communication's myTV service. It is also the first time that a local media company has offered broadcast on m obile TV, which runs on the widely used DVB-H (digital video broadcasting-handh eld) standard. Smart's myTV has been in operation for about a year and is gradually increasing its content offerings. Inquirer.net Executive Editor Leonardo Magno, Jr. said mobile TV is already bei ng used in other countries, such as Singapore and Australia, many users have mo bile phones with DVB-H features. "I was intrigued by its potential. Since then, INQUIRER.net has kept its eye on the technology and now we are pioneering it i n the country." Magno stressed that the traditional method of "online" media has to be expanded to include not just the Internet but also other platforms. He said that expansion does not mean having to port existing content to other p latforms but rather build new material from the ground up. "This is not merely âshovelwareâ of news programs which you already see on the boob tube and merely ported to the mobile TV. We are now in the process of crea ting more original programs and you will see them more not just on mobile TV bu t on other platforms as well," Magno said. In a separate interview, SmallBytes Corporation (operator of the GO Channel) Pr esident Arnedo Lucas said the mobile TV platform is very new and is still limit ed to a smaller group of mobile phone users. He added that the challenge for creating content on mobile TV is that tradition al methods of information delivery are changed. The content developer has to be aware who is on the other side of the screen and not just throw any content. "You assess who you're talking to and adjust accordingly," Lucas said. However, Lucas said it holds many opportunities for the user, the content devel oper and even advertisers. "Mobile TV is currently targeted at the 'alpha people' and decision makers. The se are people who want to get information relevant to them whenever and whereve r they are," he said. Lucas said that GO Channel is currently in its test broadcast but will have its commercial launch on January 18, 2009. He said they would be adding more origi nal content. "Mobile TV is very new but we're optimistic that more users will be able to acc ess it as phone manufacturers continue to make new phones that have mobile TV c omponents," Lucas said.