Online Media
Mobile broadcasting promises entirely new markets, products and services for broadcasters, content producers, equipment makers and - of course - consumers.
The European Commission advocates the deployment of a Europe-wide approach to help Europe's industries seize the opportunity and urges Member States and industry to facilitate and accelerate the deployment of mobile TV across Europe through the use of DVB-H as the single European standard for mobile TV.
DIF says
Mobile TV is an important growth market for the future. To help achieve this DIF supports the principles of industry-led solutions with light touch regulation and technology and service neutrality.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND POLICY MEASURES
Related EU documents and links
In July 2007 the European Commission adopted the Communication on "Strengthening the Internal Market for Mobile TV" aimed at deploying a strategy to favour the take-up of mobile TV across the 27 EU Member States.
Among the key success factors identified by the Commission for mobile TV take-up were:
- Standards/interoperability: The Commission will promote consensus around a common standard, to reduce market fragmentation caused by multiple technical options for mobile TV transmission. The DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) technology has been identified as the strongest contender for future mobile TV.
- A favourable regulatory environment: National approaches to regulating mobile TV vary considerably at the moment. This generates regulatory uncertainty across the EU. The Commission considers that mobile TV is a nascent service and as such should benefit from "light touch" regulation. It will organise an exchange of best practice and provide guidance for a coherent framework for mobile TV authorisation regimes.
In March 2008 the Commission added DVB-H to the EU List of Standards, which serves as a basis for encouraging the harmonised provision of telecommunications across the EU. This was followed by the publication of a set of guidelines for the authorisation of Mobile TV to accelerate roll-out of the service across Europe. The guidelines call upon the industry to make sure that DVB-H based Mobile TV services in every EU country work together.