Mobile TV

Mobile TV is a name used to describe a service to subscribers via mobile telecommunications networks, most probably cellular phone carriers. suppliers for the industry are actively investigating such a service, looking at technical questions as well as content issues such as licensing of existing content.

Technically, there are several possibilities. These include digital video broadcast handheld (DVB-H), digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB), TDtv (based on TD-CDMA technology from Qualcomm) and MediaFLO. None is ideal as all have drawbacks of one kind or another: spectral frequencies used or needed, signal strength required, new antennas and towers, network capacity required, or business model.

There is no new unified global spectrum available for the service, whichever approach is chosen. Perhaps most plausible is TDtv, which is part of the 3GPP Release 6 specification and is fully UMTS. It also uses an advantage of being an overlay on existing spectrum, so can possibly allow roaming from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And handoff between nodes will be clearly feasible, even at relatively high speeds.

As of early 2006, cellular carriers began several experimental projects to test several approaches. By the end of 2006, most observers expect some approaches will have been dropped, and one or more to have emerged as possible standards.

Munich is home to Siemens, one of the companies using the World Cup to test out mobile TV. Mobile TV is currently only available unicast, which means you can individually call it up onto a mobile. But the aim is to broadcast to masses, and you cannot get much more of a mass audience than the World Cup. To make football work in miniature you need to do tinkering behind the scenes with how a picture looks. "You don't show shots far away, for example," explained Andre Lonne of Siemens. You get closer. Specific areas in the display will have a higher bit-rate, for example. By 2011, 210 million people are predicted to use mobile TV. Before we can all carry a World Cup in our pockets, there is a small matter of a standards battle to get.

Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld (DVB-H) is based on the technology for terrestrial digital TV and is the standard favoured by Siemens.

It has a very high channel efficiency. This basically means that you are able to broadcast better quality or more channels over the same available frequencies, and as well it is built in such a way that you can easily build interactive services. Accenture is developing a virtual sports platform to supply all that post-match analysis that fans lap up. In UK football the fan-base is not limited to the UK. It is a global sport. It is a global fan-base. While football clubs have everything to gain from increasing the internet presence and going mobile, so do other content providers.

The most important thing to realise about the difference between mobile TV and digital TV is that with digital TV at home, you've got an unlimited power supply and a large aerial on the roof of the building, both of which are quite handy,"

While some have expressed doubts about whether people will want to watch TV on their mobiles, handset giant Nokia and leading independent TV producer Endemol are convinced it will be a winner.

"Time-slicing is a way of making the device's battery last a lot longer because it isn't running all the time," What's actually happening is that the programme it's receiving is being sent to it in very intense bursts of data, and between those bursts it allows the device to completely shut down, apart, obviously, from the screen and the sound.

You cannot afford to miss this high-level international congress on Mobile TV
With customer’s willingness to pay 8-12 Euros per month for mobile broadcasting, mobile TV is considered the new killer application in the mobile telco world. With every mobile operator, broadcaster and content provider now at the decision-stage for mobile TV, a multitude of issues need to be considered and solved. Hear about spectrum availability and management and learn about the latest trials and the best business models.

In 2005 Phones will overtake televisions within a decade: Philips. Interest in television services over cellular or broadband wireless networks is intensifying as operators seek a new, high margin application. If the boom materializes, it will also be a major boost for chipmakers. We have already seen Qualcomm unveiling its FLO OFDM-based network technology for television, and now Philips Semiconductors is predicting, within a decade, the majority of its television chips will go into cellphones, not conventional television sets.

In 2006 BT released results of its six month mobile TV pilot in the south east of England, the largest conducted. The pilot gathered data from 1,000 mobile phone users, equally split in terms of demographics within the M25 area. BT Movio, the telco's division set up for mobile TV, used the DAB broadcast technology to broadcast seven TV channels and 50 digital radio stations. Digital radio was the most popular choice of access for women, while men mostly viewed the Sky Sports news channel. Users were able to choose from Channel 4, E4, ITV2, Sky news channels and the Cartoon Network.
In the UK many TV stations companies are trying the new invention

Sky brings you the latest in mobile technology to ensure:

Alerts and the latest news stories and videos from Sky Sports and Sky News
Personalise the “My Sports” section to follow the sports, teams and events of your choice
Live scoreboards giving play-by-play accounts of sports events
Tables, fixtures, results and standings for all the key sports
Weather forecasts from the Sky Weather team, including a 24 hour outlook for UK cities and towns
Check odds, place bets and manage your Skybet account**

In 2006 the BBC and ITV are understood to be close to a deal veil plans to develop a live TV broadcast service for mobile phones, with an initial six-month trial planned for later this year. The trial, which will be in conjunction with handset makers Samsung and LG, will explore the viability of mobile TV, and is understood Eurosport and Cartoon Network have also registered interest in the service. The BBC tryout will include its News 24 service, and an as-yet-unnamed ITV digital channel. If the initial six-month trial is a success, it is likely that the BBC and ITV will expand the service to its other channels.

The move greatly increases a prospect of mobile TV being widely available before a government's proposed analogue shutdown in 2012. The mobile TV programmes will be broadcast using technology currently used by digital radio. The BBC and ITV have yet to confirm an exact date of when a trial is likely to begin, but it is understood it will commence later in the year by a consortium led by BT and radio companies Chrysalis and UBC Media.

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Fox Television Studios and Chooz Active Content announced today that Fox Television Studios has optioned from Chooz its "Foreplay" property, a madefor-mobile animated dating series. The studio has acquired all U.S. mobile rights, as well as worldwide television, home entertainment, Internet, publishing and merchandising rights. Under the exclusive deal, Fox TV Studios will develop original episodes based on the existing "Foreplay" characters and storylines.

NBC and RCA sends 1st mobile-TV vans onto the streets of NY December 12, 1937 in history.