Pocket-Sized TVs Are Nifty Idea in Need of Fine-Tuning

Some media are born great, other media achieve greatness and still others have greatness thrust upon them. Then there are the few unfortunates such as pocket television--a nifty idea that’s gotten a hazy reception.

“We thought we’d be selling a million sets a year by now,” confides John J. McDonald, president of Casio Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese company that’s a world leader in the technology. “We’re now selling only about 300,000 a year.”

But why? America’s insatiable lust for television burns with a passion hotter than an Orpheus for his Eurydice, a Romeo for his Juliet or a Narcissus for his reflection. According to the Nielsens, the average American household spends more than 7 hours, 48 minutes every day gazing rapturously at a video screen. TV technology is the vessel of pop culture.

What does it say about the viewing public when a new generation of television set ends up struggling in the marketplace? How could a technology that’s so cheap, that puts television in the palm of your hand, that does for video what the Walkman does for audio, be such a Grade A techno-turkey?

And then it hit me: You can’t get cable. Actually, the story’s a little more complicated. This technology is more novel than excellent. You only get to taste the TV instead of devour it.

“The biggest problem is reception,” concedes a spokesman for Citizen Business Machines, another Japanese pocket TV manufacturer. “You have only one little rabbit ear antenna and you don’t have much amplification with the battery pak.” In fact, if the transmitter is more than 35 miles away, all you’ll get is snow.

What’s more, there’s something intuitively askew about watching “Gone With the Wind” or “Lonesome Dove” on a screen the size of a matchbox. On a pocket TV, the people all look like actors auditioning for “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”

“The Walkman not only portabilized music, it made it better,” says Paramount Television chief Mel Harris. “Portable video doesn’t enhance television, it makes it worse. Miniaturized video is not the same as personalized video.”

That’s just the bad news. The worse news is that, even if the reception rivaled high-definition television sets, what’s there to watch? The biggest reason people buy pocket television sets, says Casio’s McDonald, is to catch the ball game. That explains why Father’s Day rivals Christmas as the peak time for pocket TV sales. You would think that women would at least buy them to catch the soaps, but no. The bottom line is that pocket TV currently offers a lousy viewing experience both in terms of quality and choice.

Which is too bad for the broadcasters. All those tiny TVs would be their captive audience. “Five percent of all TV viewing is done out of the home,” says David F. Poltrack, CBS’ senior vice president of planning and research, “and we’re very interested in the growth of (that market). A huge penetration of pocket TVs would increase it significantly.”

Poltrack figures that if broadcasters could use the portable media to double out-of-home viewing, they could theoretically reap almost $500 million in new advertising revenue by virtue of their newly expanded audience. That’s real money. But it won’t be the broadcasters that will harvest the profits of portable media--it will be Hollywood.

That’s not because Hollywood is any smarter than the broadcasters; it’s because the Japanese can’t help making media hardware that gives the moguls yet another way to sell their software. Take, for example, the new Sony gadget that blends an eight-millimeter VCR with a pocket TV screen. Very clever, and it will have its imitators. Technically, that does for video what the cassette-based Walkman does for audio while skewering the broadcasters.

The problem is that Paramount’s Harris is still right--miniaturizing the screen makes the viewing experience unpalatable. The built-in VCR gives you a universe of choice but does nothing to enhance the viewing.

So here’s my advice to the Japanese: Forget miniaturization. What you really want to do is offer a lightweight, flat screen that’s about the size of, say, a tabloid newspaper--something that people could hold up in front of them and “read” just like the paper (and there’s no ink to smear off on the fingers). Ideally, you could fold it up and slip it into your purse or briefcase. Don’t forget to make it modular so that you can plug in that cigarette-pack-sized VCR and headphones for personalized viewing pleasure.

In other words, Americans love the large screen, so give it to them. Think of it as designing a personal video “window” because we obviously don’t like to look through peepholes. With liquid crystal display technology, you can offer something that’s light, colorful and, yes, cheap. Combine that with the hand-held VCR so people can customize videotapes the way music aficionados now customize their music tapes, and you have a truly exciting medium that combines portability with versatility. If nothing else, you have a new way to keep the kids occupied in the back seat.

Look at the historical trends: Print became a portable medium. Radio and Walkmans made audio portable. Photography became portable and immediate, courtesy of Edwin Land. Camcorders offer instant video capture. Cellular phones and laptop computers provide portable telecommunications. The tide of technological history is on the side of portable video and, if packaged well, it will be the next huge consumer market.

Which is critical--because as Hollywood and the broadcasters will tell you--7 hours and 48 minutes a day is not enough.