The Future of Mobile TV: When Mobile TV Meets the Internet and Social Networking

Abstract First-generation mobile TV has involved delivering content to cell phones. But as mobile TV evolves, it will find greater significance as part of a multifaceted video offering that combines multiple screens, devices, networks, and content types. Content, or a particular viewing session, moves with the user, across devices and across networks. Furthermore, in addition to providing an alternate screen, a mobile device may provide complementary functions like programming TiVo remotely, streaming video from the cell phone to the TV set, or creating video content for distribution on the Web and uploading it directly over wireless networks. In the new TV ecosystem, all end-user devices collaborate across the whole video value chain, from content creation to distribution to consumption. Finally, as mobile devices become integral components of the new video ecosystem, their personal nature will drive the development of social TV, defined as a new way of delivering TV based on users sharing all aspects of the experience within the context of social networks. This chapter presents our view of mobile social TV: a shared TV experience that uses the power of the Internet and social networks to “move” from screen to screen and network to network to unite family and friends.