At home we take broadcast TV such as terrestrial, cable or satellite for granted, however when it comes to in-car entertainment it is not possible to bring cable TV to the car, virtually impossible to keep a dish aligned to a satellite and quite a bit of frustration having to retune the TV from zone to zone with terrestrial TV as well as losing the picture here & there. So besides music, up until now DVDs and game consoles have been the main forum of backseat in-car entertainment.
At the CES Show, Sirius a major satellite radio provider has teamed up with Microsoft to bring satellite TV to the car using the same delivery method as with its satellite radio (requiring no dish). Due to very limited bandwidth on its satellite, it will use Microsoft's Windows Media Video 9 compression to fit two to three channels containing premium video content via its satellite. As the main backseat viewers are children, these channels will mainly dedicate their content to children's programming.
Currently Sirius broadcasts over 120 channels of commercial free content and claims that the additional video content will not affect the quality of its existing channels. Once they are begin their video broadcasts, they aim to compete with DVD, VHS and other forms of in-car entertainment.
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With services planned to begin in the second half of 2006, Sirius, it is geared to compete with other in-car video systems including DVD, VHS, and other satellite based services. Sirius plans to devote 2-3 channels of premium video content designed primarily for children. Sirius' automotive partners are eager proponents of the service because of the strong demand for rear seat video entertainment. Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius was quoted as saying that "Working together with Microsoft will help ensure the exciting development of a solid and user friendly video platform for SIRIUS for years to come." Microsoft's high-quality and compression efficiencies in Windows Media Video 9 are well suited for reception of video in mobile environments. Currently, Sirius broadcasts over 120 channels of commercial free music, news, talk and entertainment programming, and the addition of its video channels are not expected to affect the current audio fidelity of the company's existing channels. Sirius radios are currently offered in vehicles from Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Infiniti, Jeep, Lincoln-Mercury, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Nissan, Porsche and Volkswagen. In early 2005, Sirius will also be available in Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles. Hertz, a rental car company, currently offers Sirius at 53 major locations around the country. |
While quite a number of music lovers would be happy to fork out for satellite radio, this may be a different story for video over satellite particularly when the driver gets no benefit (must keep an eye on the road) and number of channels are very limited. Then again, if the content shown is what the kids are mainly interested in, it will probably save on DVD rental costs or forgetting to grab the movies before heading off.
I remember a time when children were constantly been warned never to look at a screen for more than a few hours per day. Now it is coming to the stage where one watches TV while at home, in front of a PC while at work, watching a show while in the car and finally go out to the cinema on occasion. If backseat TV does take off, I don't think the music industry would be too happy since it potentially means less music being listened to (kids may say why listen to music when we can watch TV) and potentially less CDs being purchased.
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Source: The Inquirer
