Recently, Pyramid Research released a report that mobile video usage is expected to rise at annual compound growth rate of 28% over the next five years. At this rate, by 2014 more than 500 million users worldwide will subscribe to a mobile TV service. The popularity of Mobile TV and mobile video has earned it the title of the Fourth Screen, after movie, television, and computer screens (first, second, and third, respectively).

As Mobile TV and mobile video grow in popularity and more people are carrying smart phones with them everywhere, television viewing habits are changing. Today people are watching TV programs, news, and even social video sharing sites on their cell phones anywhere and at any time.

Typically, the term Mobile TV refers to video viewed on a mobile device. But, for our purposes, we will differentiate between Mobile TV (broadcast television programs and advertising and pay TV services) and mobile video (watching and sharing videos from video sharing sites and peer-to-peer).

Cell Phone Video Formats

Mobile TV and mobile video come in only a few formats, and all are compressed; 3GPP, MPEG-4, RTSP, and Flash Lite.

3GPP (.3gp)
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is a globally standardized communication system between 3rd generation GSM-based mobile phones and is the primary format for cell phone video. This is the format in which your cell phone will save video. Most Prosumer editing systems will output 3GPP files. There are also many format conversion programs and plug-ins on the market available as freeware and shareware. In reality, 3GPP is a variety of MPEG-4 (Part 12), but is often classified separately from the other MPEG-4 formats.

MPEG-4
MPEG-4 (Motion Picture Experts Group) is a very popular and universal format for video and comes in several flavors, classified as Parts. For example, Part 2 includes Windows Media Video (.wmv), DivX, Xvid, 3ivx QuickTime 6, and Nero Digital. Part 10 is the H.264 or AVC standard and includes QuickTime 7. Virtually any mobile video device will play MPEG-4 video.

RTSP
RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) is a protocol used to establish and control streaming media sessions. Although it starts and controls the data stream, RTSP does not handle the actual transmission of the stream. That task is usually accomplished with RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol), although some vendors use proprietary transport protocols. The RTSP protocol is used by many players including QuickTime, RealPlayer, Skype, VLC Media Player, and Windows Media Player.

Flash Lite
Flash Lite is a highly optimized version of Flash intended for mobile phones and portable devices. Flash Lite supports the H.264 standard and, of course, supports FLV, which is used by most popular video sharing sites.

Mobiclip
This codec, developed by Actimagine, is based on its work with mobile gaming consoles and optimizes response to the battery life and video quality requirements of mobile platforms. It is used to deliver video on memory cards for mobile phones. Mobiclip files can also be downloaded or streamed over a telecom network.

Distribution

Video Distribution has always been a problem for new producers trying to get their work seen. The easiest video to produce and distribute, at least as far as cell phones are concerned, is live video shot with the phone and distributed with a video sharing service such as Qik. Web services, such as Qik, enable users to easily share their videos through e-mails, SMS and social network sites by distributing to the sites for you. However, for those who want to distribute edited videos there are other choices.

There are, of course, internet media publishing companies, such as Multivu and QuickPlay, that distribute advertising and news videos to cell phones and other Mobile TV devices for their clients. We won't spend time on these companies or other mainstream broadcasters sending television and advertising over Mobile TV. We will discuss how you can distribute your own videos.