Mobile TV: small wonder

TV sets are popularly known as idiot box but the love–hate relation with idiot box is because of the content. If the same content is made available on mobile to subscribers via mobile telecommunications networks, it is known as mobile TV. South Korea is the pioneer of this developing sector.

Mobile medium

Deliverance

Currently, DVB-H is the most widely used standard undergoing trials in Europe, whilst DMB has been implemented and proving to be popular in Korea. Last year, mobile operator 3 Italia was the first to launch a DVB-H commercial service in Europe and attracted more than 100,000 subscribers in the first month. However, this success can at least in part be attributed to the timing-the World Cup Soccer 2006 provided the ideal opportunity to roll out mobile TV in the Italian market. Italians are renowned for their love of football; add to this the fact that that their team made it to the final and ultimately became the World Cup champions and you were almost guaranteed a captive audience!

The Indian scene

Despite uncertainty about when mobile TV will achieve any kind of mass market and what the size of the potential audience, mobile TV is very much on the move. However, success of mobile TV depends on the content, its suitability for the small screen and perhaps most significantly, cost. Operators must ensure that they are delivering what users really want, when they want it, if they are to achieve significant and sustainable new sources of revenue.

Sandeep Budki

Sandeepb@cybermedia.co.inIn India, local public broadcaster Doordarshan (DD) has launched a DVB-H based mobile TV pilot in New Delhi. The service offers eight free channels, including DD National, DD News, DD Sports and services in Bharati, Urdu, Punjabi, Bangla, and Podhigai. The number of channel and the service coverage is expected to increase during the next few months. Nokia and Samsung provided mobile handsets.Technically, there are two main ways of delivering mobile TV. The first is via a two-way cellular network and the second is through a one-way dedicated broadcast network. These include digital video broadcasting-handheld (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), TDtv (based on TD-CDMA technology from IPWireless), 1seg (based on Japan's ISDB-T), DAB and MediaFLO.Mobile TV involves bringing TV services to the mobile phones. The combination of mobile phone with television involves consumers, operators and content providers. Mobile TV over cellular networks allows viewers to enjoy personalized and interactive TV with content specifically adapted to the mobile medium. The services and viewing experience of mobile TV over cellular networks differs in a variety of ways from traditional TV viewing. In addition to mobility, mobile TV delivers a variety of services including video-on-demand, traditional/linear and live TV programs. Another exciting opportunity for users is mobile TV pod casts, where content is delivered to a user's mobile on demand or by subscriptions. Stored locally on the handset, this content can then be viewed even when there's no network connection. And a service provider can schedule the delivery to 'off-peak' hours, for example during the night.