AT&T mobile TV: No one watching

Video is available on a number of small devices including the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod and several Verizon (NYSE: VZ) phones. Verizon even offers mobile TV.

AT&T (NYSE: T) doesn't want to miss out on the opportunity. It will launch its own mobile TV product. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The service, which will be available in 58 markets, including most big cities, will offer programs from several major TV networks, including CBS, Comedy Central, NBC and Fox." As the paper points out, the phones set up to carry TV are expensive and the service costs $15 a month.

Video is not doing too well on phones and other portable devices. The reasons are clear, even if the people at the phone companies do not want to hear them. Video is hard to watch on a one-inch square screen. Viewers may be able to hear the dialog but a video of "The Matrix" can't look good without the picture detail.

The other reason that cellular TV is unlikely to work is that cellular service in the US is still fairly poor. Dropped calls are a part of the life of the cellular phone consumer.

It is one thing to lose a call and have to redial. It is another to drop a signal in the middle of your favorite program. The cellular companies are just going to make people mad.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and the author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter,