GoTV Networks, a Sherman Oaks, Calif. company that delivers TV over the mobile phone, has raised $12 million in a second round of financing from Motorola and Qualcomm.
GoTV failed in its original incarnation, and restarted in late 2004 to focus on mobile TV, with $15 million in a recapitalization round from Bessemer Venture Partners and Charles River Ventures.
It charges customers about $5 a month, and can be had on Boost Mobile, Cingular, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless. Here is Motorola’s announcement on the deal. It is not clear whether Motorola will help GoTV get to its phones, or how prominently Qualcomm will feature it with its MediaFLO service, which has yet to be rolled out.
It also isn’t clear how many people really want to watch featured video on their phones; many people think user-generated video will be more popular, and thus harder for folks like GoTV to make money from.
A leading competitor is MobiTV, which has raised at least $100 million, and is serving Sprint, Nextel, Cingular, and AT&T, and now apparently Comcast.
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