Mobile TV

Now that the recommendations of the TRAI are before the ministry and it is mulling over the technology neutrality clause, here is news from the industry.After the EU recommendation of adopting a single standard for mobile TV ( In this case DVB-H) the NAB through a study conducted has arrived at the conclusion that a single standard for mobile TV is not only beneficial for the Mobile TV growth, but is critical in its progress. The NAB study has shown that the broadcasters could underutilize the advertising and revenue potential of Mobile TV by more that $50 million a month and the consequent company valuations by $200 Million a month. The projected revenues from Mobile TV services have been set at $ 2 Billion per year for Mobile digital TV with broadcasters share being $1.1 Billion a year.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), an alliance of over 800 broadcasters has endorsed the recommendations of the study. It is now inevitable that with the new technologies recently demonstrated such as mobile pedestrian handheld( MPH) and advanced VSB technologies(A-VSB) , which are compatible with the ATSC DTV stations, there will be a strong alliance pressure to pin down to a single standard for mobile TV.
Irrespective of which technology is a winner, the fact remains that a single technology has significant advantages in customer reach as the handsets for the mobile TV service can have a common interface and thus targeting of much larger audiences