Mobile TV Format
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Mobile TV Format is a colloquial and collective name for technology standards set out for broadcasting TV services to mobile devices, mostly mobile handsets for now. Currently, there are four prevalent formats known as
DMB DMB may refer to: * "D.M.B.", a song by ASAP Rocky * DMB Development, a Limited Liability Corporation based in Scottsdale, Arizona * DaMarcus Beasley, nicknamed DMB, an American soccer player * Dave Matthews Band, a U.S. rock band * Del McCoury Ba ...
,
DVB-H DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 20 ...
,
OneSeg is a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and the Philippines. Service began experimentally during 2005 and commercially on April 1, 2006. It is designed ...
and
MediaFLO MediaFLO was a technology developed by Qualcomm for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices such as mobile phones and personal televisions, used for mobile television. In the United States, the service powered by this technology wa ...
. As of December 2007,
ITU The International Telecommunication Union is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...
approved T-DMB,
DVB-H DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is one of three prevalent mobile TV formats. It is a technical specification for bringing broadcast services to mobile handsets. DVB-H was formally adopted as ETSI standard EN 302 304 in November 20 ...
,
OneSeg is a mobile terrestrial digital audio/video and data broadcasting service in Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru and the Philippines. Service began experimentally during 2005 and commercially on April 1, 2006. It is designed ...
and
MediaFLO MediaFLO was a technology developed by Qualcomm for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices such as mobile phones and personal televisions, used for mobile television. In the United States, the service powered by this technology wa ...
as the global standard for real-time mobile video and audio broadcasting. Thus far, none of the four formats has secured a dominant position in the global market, except in their respective home markets.


History

Samsung and LG were the first to tout new generation mobile phones that would allow users to watch live multi-channel TV on the move during
International Broadcasting Convention International Broadcasting Convention, more commonly known by its initials IBC, is an annual trade show, held in September at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. IBC's tagline is “By the industry. For the ...
(IBC) in Amsterdam in September 2005. South Korea's top mobile operator
SK Telecom SK Telecom Co., Ltd. ( or ) is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator and former film distributor and is part of the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebols. It leads the local market with 50.5 percent share as of 2008. S ...
launched a satellite pay-TV service to mobile phones in South Korea in May 2005. The Korean handset makers' push into the European Mobile TV market was soon to be met by strong competition, particularly from Nokia, while the Korean handset makers were looking forward to the 2006 World Cup soccer game in Germany as a crucial launch pad.


Market Developments

South Korea's DMB made a head start in May 2005, but European Union advocates for a single standard and has officially endorsed Nokia's DVB-H. In the US, however, Qualcomm's MediaFLO has got the upper hand for now. Japan is developing its own standard. Journalists and market analyzers are currently taking widely split views about the future course of mobile TV format wars. "We see DVB-H winning out over all, but there will also be limited space for some of the other technologies," said Adrian Drozd, a London-based senior analyst with Datamonitor. "DMB has a head start, but from 2007 onward DVB-H should get momentum and become the dominant technology." Which format is going to be an ultimate winner in the end is less important than when mobile TV will grow out of its infancy to be a prime pastime for mobile handset users globally. For instance, five-channel Virgin Mobile TV (VMTV) was launched in UK in October 2006, based on DMB technology with a £2.5m advertising campaign. But it failed to take off with customers, and in July 2007 VMTV has reached a decision to dump its mobile TV service.Virgin ditches mobile TV service
/ref> Speaking about Virgin's decision to dump its mobile TV service, Bruce Renny, marketing director at mobile TV group ROK Entertainment Group, said expectations of the commercial take-up of broadcast mobile TV had been "over-optimistic, and the demise of Virgin's mobile TV service reflects that". "After all, why pay a subscription fee to receive the same TV content on your mobile that you already get at home? Particularly when people don't watch TV on mobiles for more than a few minutes at a time. "Most mobile TV viewing is for just a few minutes. To be commercially successful, you have to provide a combination of live news, sports updates and video-on-demand made-for-mobile content which is instantly engaging. Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer," he said. Contrary to the above-mentioned failure, however, South Korea seems to be on the right track. As of February 2006, Satellite DMB(S-DMB) subscribers came to 440,000 since the service launch in May 2005, while the number of Terrestrial DMB (T-DMB) subscribers reached 110,000 since the service launch in December 2005. As of December 2007, South Korea is the only country where T-DMB is widely deployed. More than 7 million handsets, laptops, car navigators and other gadgets that are equipped with T-DMB receivers are in use. USB-type receivers are being sold at around 50,000 won ($50). It is being tested in 11 other nations including Germany, Italy, France, Britain and China. Nevertheless, both T-DMB and S-DMB have not garnered decent profits so far.
/ref>


See also


Regulating the mobile TV market


References

{{reflist Mobile content