Experts back DVB-H for mobile TV in Europe

Industry analysts are backing DVB-H for mobile TV in Europe

The delivery of mobile television in Europe will eventually fall under the Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld (DVB-H) standard, industry experts predicted today.

Frost & Sullivan believes that over the next couple of years mobile TV will be carried over a variety of standards and technologies.

These are expected to include Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Terrestrial-Digital Media Broadcast (T-DMB), cellular multicasting and DVB-H. However, as the market matures, DVB-H will appear as the most common and capable platform.

"The fight for the mobile TV standard in Europe will be won not by the first standard introduced in the market, but by the most efficient, economical and future-ready one, even if it is a few years down the line," said Frost & Sullivan ICT industry analyst Pranab Mookken.

"DVB-H is likely to become the European standard and delivery mechanism for mobile TV in Europe by 2010 as it perfectly complements the existing digital TV standard and is likely to solve the spectrum allocation issues in the preferred UHF band."

The analyst firm asserts that the migration from analogue to digital standards across Europe will help the uptake of the DVB-H UHF spectrum, as DVB-H is backward compatible with its fixed terrestrial counterpart Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial (DVB-T).

The DVB-H UHF spectrum also becomes available during a time when existing 3G operators in Europe will be nearing the end of the subscriptions on their cellular networks and looking to migrate their video services to a comple mentary network for the future.

However, Frost & Sullivan admitted that competition for DVB-H could come in the form of South Korea's Satellite-DMB and Terrestrial-Digital Media Broadcast (T-DMB) services. These two standards have divided the South Korean communications industry.

"Since they are already available, broadcasters and operators may consider the use of DAB-IP and T-DMB delivery mechanisms for the interim period before the introduction of DVB-H," added Mookken.

"Also, successful trials over DAB-IP and a readily available mobile TV packaged product from BT Movio could tempt operators to experiment with these alternatives."