Nine of the largest U.S. television broadcast groups formally announced Sunday night the formation of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, an industry alliance to accelerate the development of mobile digital broadcast television.

The charter members: Belo Corp., Fox Television Stations, Gannett Broadcasting, Gray Television, Ion Media Networks, the NBC and Telemundo television stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Broadcasting Co.

The groups represent over 280 television stations in the U.S., covering 95 million households, including 49 of the top 50 markets nationwide.

The group says it anticipates working closely with the Advanced Technology Advocacy Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters.

The announcement came at the Harris press event at NAB, at which Harris and partner LG Electronics said that they had developed a mobile video system to rival that of Samsung's A-VSB system.

Brandon Burgess, president/CEO of Ion Media Networks, who was instrumental in the group's formation, declined to endorse either the Harris/LG or Samsung system, choosing to remain technology neutal for the time being.

Sinclair's VP of Engineering and Operations Del Parks praised the Harris/LG system, saying that "it really does work," but, like Burgess, refrained from giving an outright endorsement, emphasizing that Sinclair had helped to form the coalition in order to "encourage all parties to develop the best mobile and portable systems."

Asked whether Harris, LG or the coalition had evidence that consumers want to watch full-length broadcast formats on mobile devices or whether they might prefer the edited chunks being offered by Mobi-TV, Verizon V-Cast and others, Park said that there are over 100 million portable (battery operated) TVs out there right now. And he was quick to point out that nearly all 100 million of these gadgets would become instant doorstops in February 2009 and would be replaced by new devices.

The coalition describes its charter as including:

• Serving as a forum for members and participating affiliates regarding product requirements and technology specifications related to mobile digital broadcast television.
  
  
• Promoting the development of products, services and standards enabling mobile digital broadcast television.
  
  
• Educating broadcasters, technology developers, consumers and regulators about the value, benefits and applications of mobile digital broadcasting.

The coalition's work will include promoting development of industry technical standards; defining technical objectives and requirements of broadcasters, equipment manufacturers, service operators, content developers and consumers; accelerating the development of new technology, solutions and content; driving regulatory support and promoting consumer adoption of mobile digital broadcast television. Membership is open to all U.S.-based television broadcasters.