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your pocket PC
Cool idea, huh? Depends on who's talking.
By David Everitt
The term narrowcasting is about to acquire a new meaning.
A wireless communications company is planning to broadcast a new 24-hour TV channel that will play within the narrow confines of a pocket-PC screen.
For the past few years, Kanakaris Wireless has specialized in video streaming. Among its ventures is CinemaPop.com, which offers independent films over the net.
Its latest techno-scheme, AK.TV, is supposed to be capable of broadcasting a TV channel across a range of equipment, including laptops, desktops and game consoles, but the primary target will be handheld devices.
"Conventional wisdom is that people won’t want to watch movies on a pocket PC screen," says Alex Kanakaris, the company’s president and CEO.
"Conventional wisdom is wrong. People in over a hundred countries watch movies on our movie web site, and I think they will continue to expand that habit to the pocket PC."
He sees people watching this handheld channel while traveling, while on a break from work or while jogging. We hope, though, that the joggers will find the time to look where they’re going, too.
Making this type of broadcasting possible is an encoding technology called CinemaWEAR (WEAR standing for "wireless entertainment asynchronous remote"), which, according to Kanakaris, is "able to create a viable video stream to a smaller size device."
Filling the channel with something that people will want to see will be another problem to solve.
For now AK.TV will broadcast the kind of independent fare found on CinemaPop, as well as a package of feature films it has acquired from Troma, the scrappy B-movie factory.
Kanakaris Wireless conducted a test of the service at the Cannes Film Festival and has started a limited launch.
Currently, the plan is to broadcast for an hour a day, then expand to 24 hours a day by the end of the month.
Until deals with studios other than Troma come along, the challenge will be to find a way to entice audiences all day long with the likes of "Toxic Avenger Part 3" and "Chopper Chicks in Zombietown." (Although, it should be noted, there’s always the chance for a more classical appeal with "Tromeo and Juliet.")
A key to success, says Kanakaris, is the idea of a free channel rather than the subscription approach that was once favored by so many now-defunct web sites.
"When TV and radio got started," he says, "people didn’t have to pay to watch or listen to a show. The evolution here should be similar. People do not want to pay extra for a wireless channel."
Kanakaris hopes to pay the AK.TV bills through sponsor support for his programming. He also sees potential for video ads that incorporate EEC (embedded electronic commerce), which will allow consumers to place orders during the spot.
Industry observers who have taken a look at AK.TV haven’t dispensed completely with the conventional wisdom that Kanakaris puts so little stock in.
"I don’t think there’s a huge market for this kind of service in the short term," says Mike Goodman, a senior analyst at the Yankee Group.
For him, the immediate issue is the quality of the channel’s transmission.
"Videophiles are real bandwidth hogs," he says, "and you don’t come close to broadcast quality video in the wireless world right now."
He says that the question of consumer demand won’t kick in until the technology issues are settled, but he wonders, "Do people really want to watch TV on a handheld screen that’s one or two inches across? How good can that experience be?"
Jimmy Schaeffler, media analyst at the Carmel Group, also raises doubts about the wireless broadcasting experiment, but he doesn’t rule out the possibility that the medium might catch on in the future.
"I like the idea of ubiquity and mobility," he says, "but if I was an investor I’d be concerned about the current information and entertainment overload."
Reliability is one factor he cites, pointing out that the phasing in and out that can plague cell-phone communications wouldn’t be acceptable while watching a movie.
Still, Schaeffler thinks there could be a market for a wireless TV channel once the technology is perfected and once consumers become more aware of the service.
"If you’re at a football game or a baseball game," he says, "you might want to have the broadcast of the game on a pocket PC so you can get a better look at the replays. Or it can be used, say, when you’re at your kid’s soccer game.
"It may take a while for consumers to get educated about this technology. I’m just not sure it’s quite ready for primetime right now."
June 14, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-David Everitt writes about television from Huntington, New York.
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