"Audiovox, Qualcomm Team Up to Bring Live TV to Rear-Seat Entertainment Systems" Edmunds Daily

Audiovox, Qualcomm Team Up to Bring Live TV to Rear-Seat Entertainment Systems

Live TV in the car is one of those emerging technologies that has always been just down the road.

Over-the-air broadcasts are spotty in a moving vehicle. And while satellite TV for the car has been available for several years now, it usually requires a large antenna, although AT&T introduced its CruiseCast service late last year that uses an antenna with a much smaller footprint. But it's still expensive. And Sirius Backseat TV is available in some Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, but only offers three channels.

Now, through its Jensen brand, Audiovox plans to bring live TV into the vehicle through a partnership with Qualcomm via the company's MediaFLO FLO TV mobile entertainment platform designed to deliver video and audio content to AT&T and Verizon mobile phones. At its press conference today on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Audiovox announced that, starting later this year, it will be possible to view all of the content offered through FLO TV -- including live sports, news and channels such as MSNBC, Comedy Central and MTV -- on both OEM and aftermarket rear-seat entertainment systems.

An Audiovox PR representative informed us that the system's CES debut was pushed forward -- hence the fuzzy picture taken at the press conference -- but that it will be available in the third quarter of 2009. An Audiovox executive announced at the press conference that the receiver for the system will be priced under $500. FLO TV currently offers ten channels for $15 per month and is available in 68 markets.