Mobile TV FAQ's

Mobile TV is the transmission of on demand, recorded and live audiovisual content to a mobile device - at rest or on the move.

Mobile TV transmission can take the form of broadcast mobile TV similar to the TV signals you receive through your aerial or satellite dish or streaming mobile TV which is audiovisual data packets sent out by the cell phone networks to individual mobile devices.

The main difference between the two methods is that broadcast Mobile TV blanket covers an area giving unlimited mobile device access to the same signal, while streaming Mobile TV is sent as data packets by the cellular networks to individual devices and is restricted by the number of devices accessing the same tv program due to bandwidth.. Think of a water coming out of a pipe, the amount of water flowing out will only increase if the pipes size is increased.

The obvious benefit is the freedom to enjoy TV wherever you want and at anytime of the day, but there are more subtle benefits like having access to a powerful form of mobile media which will be interactive in a similar way to your digital TV at home. For the nations developing their telecommunications and internet networks it will be a way for their people to access digital TV in remote locations on the same system they use to make and receive calls.

Some governments see Mobile TV as an excellent way to broadcast national alerts to their citizens, Mobile TV would be a far more effective way of doing this because messages could contain a picture element which is something everyone could understand easily.

Africa

DMTV Kenya launched a commercial Mobile TV service in October 2007 based on Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) technology, hoping to access some of the 11 million Kenyan mobile phone users, which is a lot more than the countries 1.5 million terrestrial TV users. Nigeria and Namibia both launched services in 2008 also based on DVB-H technology. South Africa wants their system up and running well before they host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Australia

Alcatel-Lucent mobile interactive TV solution had been selected by Telstra to deliver its first fully interactive Mobile TV service in Australia. Telstra Mobile FOXTEL is a new TV media experience by Telstra that covers 33 channels in a choice of five group selections.

China

The deployment of Mobile TV in China started in earnest in 2007 in preparation for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The service is based on the China Multimedia Mobile Broadcast (CMMB) standard and a Chinese proprietary technology, Satellite and Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure (STiMi), which is said to be similar at a basic level to the European developed DVB-SH technology.

Europe

In Italy 3 Italia was the first company in the world to launch commercial DVB-H Mobile TV, with close to a million subscribers from the outset. In the UK mobile TV is offered by 3, Orange, BSKYB, Vodaphone and T-Mobile which offers live football matches. 3 offers mobile TV with content split into 18 channels their package includes free content from the BBC and ITV, plus programming from Paramount and National Geographic.

India

In India, UK-based mobile applications developer ROK Entertainment Group has launched its streamed Mobile TV system called Tiny TV and public broadcaster Doordarshan has also started a Mobile TV project, and is in the process of rolling out commercial services.

Japan

The Japanese have been watching Mobile TV since 2005 and the company NTT DoCoMo Inc has been at the forefront of developing the technology in a country where the mobile phone has become the main multi media device.

South America

Brazil launched a Mobile TV service at the beginning of 2008, based on a variant of the Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting technology (ISDB-T). The choice of standard is significant, since Brazil ranks amongst the world's largest mobile phone markets.

South Korea

Satellite service provider TU Media along with national TV broadcaster MBC are offering multi channels. Mobile TV is popular in South Korea and some of the channels are free which is helping its uptake there. Consumer electronics manufacturers like Samsung are also helping its development with new innovative TV phones.

USA

Through cell phone companies Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Cingular Wireless. Verison Wireless V Cast Mobile TV service consists of channels, CBS, Fox, NBC, NBC News, Comedy Central, ESPN, MTV, and Nickelodeon. Sprint cell phone customers have been accessing Mobile TV since 2003.

Other

See the latest worldwide Mobile TV services either launched or in the pipeline courtesy of DVB-H.org.

Like a lot of new media sources the way it comes from the source to you is often in a multitude of different formats, remember the VHS versus Beta video tape and the Blu Ray Disc versus High Definition Disc battle. Well Mobile TV is no different except it has more of them. But don't let this put you off as eventually they will get whittled down to a handful. For example, the EU is backing a standard called DVB-H which it would like all its member states to adopt. At the moment you could say there is a standards war but this war will become a concern only for the manufacturers and the network operators as multi standard mobile TV chips are already out there to be fitted to mobile TV devices so eventually wherever you go and no matter what the local standard is your mobile phone or laptop will be able to receive Mobile TV.

Listed below are some of the current standards and where they are used.

• 3G GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a method of enhancing mobile phones to enable them to send and receive data more rapidly, this includes streaming mobile TV.
• DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) - Available in Europe, the US, South Africa and Asia.
• S-DMB (Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcast) - South Korea and Japan.
• CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting) - China.
• MediaFLO - Launched in the US and trialled in the UK and Germany.
• ISDB-T (Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting) - Japan.
• T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcast) - South Korea and Germany.
• DAB-IP (Digital Audio Broadcast Internet Protocol) - UK.

For detailed information on the standards see DVB-H.org.

Mobile TV is free in some countries but the majority of services are subscription or pay per view based. There are free-to-air mobile TV services on air in Finland, India and the Philippines and also Korean and Japanese broadcasters are delivering mobile TV free-to-air. There is a free service called FreeBe TV currently available, this service uses advertising to cover its service costs.

In the future it is safe to say there will be free mobile TV channels available in all the countries that are rolling out the service. These channels however will mostly consist of those that are already available for free on the individual countries established national broadcasting systems. Eventually you may see all mobile phones with the facility to watch free mobile TV and the option to purchase tariff based channels at any time.