Wireless Federation

Mobile TV is set to kick into high gear as more operators announce trials and rollout plans, and the Open Mobile Alliance releases its first specs for mobile TV interoperability.

Broadcast Australia announced plans this week for a DVB-H trial in Sydney in conjunction with content security specialist and head-end systems vendor Thomson.

Meanwhile, Malaysia and the Philippines are primed to be the next markets to launch commercial DVB-H (following Vietnam late last year).

Nokia and MiTV Corp said on Monday that they were collaborating to launch commercial DVB-H in Malaysia in the second half of this year, while UDcast and Philippine Multimedia System Inc (PMSI) said they would launch DVB-H in Manila before the year is out.

Qualcomm is also feeling the love in Asia, having announced this week a technical trial of its MediaFLO mobile TV service with Hong Kong’s PCCW - its second in Asia following a technical trial announced in March with China Network Systems and Taiwan Television Media.

Despite the growing hype over mobile TV, one of the potential barriers has been interoperability - not between competing delivery systems but features such as electronic service guides, DRM and interactive functions. That’s where the OMA comes in with its new Mobile Broadcast (BCAST) Version 1.0 Candidate Enabler Release.

BCAST, which has already seen pre-standard support from over 35 vendors, works with any IP-based mobile content delivery technology. It also offers a potential roaming element by applying to 3G cellular networks running unicast and multicast streaming.

“That feature is pretty clever, because it means you could watch broadcast TV on your home network and then use the cellular network to access the same programs when you’re traveling,” said OMA board chairman Jari Alvinen.

Not everyone sees roaming as a must-have feature for mobile TV. “Roaming is a telecom concept, not a content concept,” said Omar Javaid, Qualcomm’s VP of business development. “With content it becomes a legal issue, because content owners issue licenses by market or by region.”

Alvinen admits that licensing can be a barrier to TV roaming. “However, if consumers demand it, once content owners realize that, they will take action on it - not to try and stop it, but to capitalize on it.”

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