Rapid TV News

No enthusiasm for DVB-H?

Chris Forrester ©RapidTVNews | 16-09-2008

“There are more mobile phones being shipped every year than TVs, PCs and cars, put together. The economies of scale for mobile continue to accelerate. Innovation comes from a broader number of communities, especially now that GSM and similar technologies like 3G are present in more countries than the United Nations. By the end of this year there’ll be more mobile phones in use than toothbrushes!”

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These are the words of Mike Short (VP/Technology, 02), speaking at IBC, and saying that prospects in Europe for dedicated TV broadcasts (in the shape of DVB-H, MediaFLO and similar technologies) to mobile phones and other portable devices are much less today than two years ago.

“In the last two years the emphasis by the mobile operators has moved back to single mode cellular mobile video, and away from dual mode cellular with mobile TV. What this means is more downloads, more clips and more streaming to a cellphone but without there being a separate broadcast network. If the 3G capability is in place then this has a lot more power to offer download and steaming capability to handsets and the innovation in the cellular world is increasing, not decreasing.”

“The prospects for an additional broadcast TV network are less than two years ago. The proliferation of standards has not helped, and the reality is there will be successful broadcast TV networks built, but it is far from clear which one will lead worldwide. Not helping is this multiplication of standards,” added Short, implying Norway’s recent decision to adopt DMB, and the recent auction win by Qualcomm for its MediaFLO technology in the UK.

In March this year EU Media Commissioner Viviane Reding firmly backed DVB-H as her “preferred technology”. Short said: “The EU initiative was logical based on all the R&D reports that the EU gave to DVB, and this included the DVB-T and DVB-SH options. So generally I believe DVB will continue to lead in Europe in the mobile space. But for handhelds and satellite there are some very tricky options ahead. I don’t think the EU policy direction alone leads to a single standard very easily. It is more than likely that we will see other standards in use in mobile TV in Europe besides DVB-H.”

© Rapid TV News 2008