Only weeks after expressing disappointment in the number of subscribers FLO TV has registered, Qualcomm is putting its mobile TV subsidiary for sale.

The news came in a call to financial analysts by Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs whilst describing the company's financial performance over the third financial quarter of 2010 ended 27 June. Overall profit inched up by 4 and a revenue drop was less than analysts expected; furthermore Qualcomm has begun to benefit from the increase in use of Android smartphones, a lot of which deploy Qualcomm technology.

However there was no such optimism for FLO. The company has offered the FLO TV for some time now and despite seeing off DVB-H services in the US has only been adopted by AT&T and Verizon.

A move in December 2009 towards manufacturing specific mobile TV devices, to ameliorate worries about the lack of FLO TV-enabled handsets look like it has served only to add cost pressures without a commensurate increase in subscribers to drive revenues.

It has been these concerns that had worried senior managers. However, somewaht ironically, FLO TV had recorded it best ever viwing figures only a short time after such comments. Over the course of the competition FLO TV claims to have set several new service viewership records, with three of the games ranking among FLO TV's most-viewed programs.

When asked by analysts about rising costs at the mobile TV division, Jacobs clearly revealed that Qualcomm had called time on MediaFLO, adding that it was considering "a number of alternatives" for the FLO TV business and that it was already having conversations with potential interested parties. Jacobs predicted that a sale would likely occur within the next twelve months. "It will get done in the next year but I don't think I can be much more specific than that...A lot of interesting discussions. It's early days," he told analysts.