Mobile TV in South Africa, Taiwan and Australia

South African mobile operator MTN is in talks with Naspers’ MultiChoice pay-TV business to provide television on mobile phones by 2010…which is when South Africa is due to host the soccer World Cup, so there’s a great deal of incentive to get that going. “Vodacom, MTN’s main rival in South Africa, has also expressed interest in pay-TV via mobile phone once the technology is ready, but was not on the list of 18 applicants for pay-TV licenses issued by the regulator this month…MTN, Vodacom and third-ranked Cell C all tested the mobile TV technology during this year’s soccer World Cup but have yet to launch commercially.”

-Competition for licenses for mobile TV in Taiwan are apparently heating up, with at least five consortiums competing for the country’s first handheld-TV test-broadcasting contract. “The National Communications Commission (NCC) will determine winners and issue licenses of the test broadcasting within a month beginning Sept. 18, when it stopped receiving bidding applications…NCC will issue six licenses islandwide to services sharing a total number of three channels-channel 35, 36 and 53.” Apparently the TV broadcasters are the most interested, although there is a warning that they’d “better team up with cellular providers since the providers’ island-wide network coverage would help them broadcast mobile TV programs across the island”.

-Mobile TV could fail because of greedy content owners or high spectrum costs, according to Broadcast Australia, which has been running the DVB-H trial there for about a year. The things which could derail the service are basically those which could drive up the cost of providing it…

Source- http://www.moconews.net

Technorati : Australia, Mobile, Mobile TV, South Africa, Taiwan
Ice Rocket : Australia, Mobile, Mobile TV, South Africa, Taiwan