MVC Outsources Mobile DTV Encryption

Mobile Content Venture, the joint venture of NBC, Fox and 10 other major TV station groups, says it has reached “important milestones” on the road toward introducing mobile DTV service in at least 20 top TV markets this year, outsourcing the management of conditional access and the development of user interfaces and reaching agreements with Dell and Samsung to make compatible receive devices available by the end of the year.

MCV announced the deals Wednesday morning on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The conditional access management contract went to Nagra-Kudelski, a leader provider of digital security technology.

The company will become the “quarterback” of the service, handling the “locks and keys” that determine which users can access what programming, said Salil Dalvi, co-GM of MCV and SVP at NBC Universal Digital Distribution.

“There is a pretty intensive process that goes into conditional access.”

At the outset, MCV plans to offer a free service, at least two channels per market, most likely simulcasts of the TV stations. But it also intends to offer pay services, whole channels and video on demand. Conditional access preserves such business options.

MobiTV will provide the user experience.

“What we do is broadcast TV programs to a device,” Dalvi said. “But you have to have a program guide, you have to have a user interface, you have to have menus. And they have to look good and work on multiple devices.”

The deals with Samsung and Dell are significant because they insure the availability of receivers when the service hits the market.

Dalvi acknowledged that some of the mobile DTV receivers now being touted by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, the industry group promoting mobile DTV, may not be able to receive the MCV service.

But Erik Moreno, co-GM of MCV and SVP at Fox, said that there will not be a “wholesale orphaning” of devices on the market today. “Because we are going to be using software-based conditional access, some of the devices may be able to get a software upgrade or app and they should be fine.”

Moreno said that the MCV partners remain optimistic that they will be able to join forces with the other major TV station groups represented by the Mobile500 Alliance. “We have the same objectives. Our working together … is an absolutely important step in our building a national footprint.”

In addition to Fox and NBC, MCV comprises Ion Media, Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media.