For Some Stations, Mobile Future Is Now

By the end of June, around 20 Nexstar television stations plan to have some form of mobile service such as WAP-enabled mobile sites, SMS texting or apps for iPhone and Droid smart phones. Nexstar is not the only TV station group that thinks mobile is going to be the next big thing.

Raycom Media, for instance, is offering mobile services at all 32 of its news-gathering stations. And Cox Media Group has either WAP sites or iPhone apps running in all 11 markets in which it operates. Despite the enthusiasm, Borrell Associates describes the broadcasters' mobile business today as "more of a staging ground for TV stations in the next two or three years than it is a source of significant revenues." Borrell estimates that local TV mobile revenues amounted to $29 million last year, or 12% of all local mobile advertising. The majority of TV stations received less than $20,000 from mobile advertising last year.