Stocks:  (SIRI)(XMSR)(T)(VZ)

Samsung has actually developed a technology that will allow cell phones to pick up local TV stations. No more YouTube idiot videos or NFL highlights. Consumers can watch the local news or reruns of "Green Acres" and "The Sopranos".

Samsung will provide the chipsets for these phones that can read a signal even when the user is in a vehicle going 170 mph. Practical.

The Korean electronics giant may have come up with the one technology that will make video viewing on cell phones attractive by turning them into smaller versions of the Sony "Watchman" that are telephones and broadband devices to boot.

Video has been a bust in the cell business so far. The Yankee Group says that only 2.5% of US consumers with video receivers in their phones watch at least once a month. Abysmal.

The technology will also work on lap-tops, in cars, and in portable video players.

Good news for Verizon and AT&T’s Cingular, but XM and Sirius better duck. In-vehicle entertainment is about to get more competition. As they say in the Army, "more incoming".

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.