Ronen Jashek

It seems like I just got off the plane from CES in Las Vegas earlier this year and no less than a minute later, I was whisked off to IFA in Berlin. IFA is a large and colorful consumer technology show that has often been hailed the “European CES”. I remember when IFA was for IT geeks (like me!), but of late, it’s taken a turn towards those fun, innovative and “just gotta have ‘em” gadgets, making IFA Europe’s leading Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances show with a pretty savvy guest list.

The gurus and the noisemakers were all there. This included all the big manufacturers who donned their Sunday best for the duration of the show, pulling out all the stops. This meant showcasing new products due for release – many of which were launched at the show. Needless to say, it was all overwhelmingly… wow! And when I caught my breath, I cascaded over to some of the bigger players in mobile TV.

What was clear was that mobile TV could be the force that is driving watching live TV down. Despite the obvious, you could see that broadcast TV is not going away anytime soon. Content on-the-go is going strong. According to a recent industry report, we simple folk spend close to 35 hours a week watching on-screen content – reams of stuff on various screens at home, on the train, in the office and even at the zoo!

And if that’s not enough, we spend another 5 hours using the Internet, not to mention those of us who live and breathe this business and are connected 24/7. It’s no surprise that through all this, mobile TV viewing continues to surge, not submerge. While tablets and smartphones are the devices of choice that inform and entertain us, we cannot survive without TV on tap.

Up until I walked through the pearly gates of IFA 2012, I thought TV viewing was just another American pastime, but boy, was I wrong! On Sept. 20^th, the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), the group promoting Mobile DTV in the U.S., held an event in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the “commercial launch” of the technology and demonstrate devices that receive over-the-air broadcasts. Whoa… Mobile DTV – here comes papa!