12 TV Ownership Groups Form Mobile DTV Venture

Belo, Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps, Fox, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television, Ion Television, Media General, Meredith, NBC, Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media are planning to form a yet-unnamed joint venture to develop and roll out mobile digital television services.

By aggregating existing broadcast spectrum from its launch partners, the new venture will have the capacity to offer a breadth of mobile video and print content to nearly 150 million U.S. residents. In addition to broadcast spectrum, the partners will commit content, marketing resources and capital to the new venture. The nine TV stations groups not associated with a network (all but NBC, Ion and Fox) formed Pearl Mobile DTV Company last December as a vehicle for their involvement in the venture. The service will employ the mobile DTV system developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for TV stations.