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ABI Research: The approaching switchover to all-digital television broadcasting in the United States and other major countries will create an unprecedented opportunity for the mobile TV market, according to a new study from ABI Research.

While mobile broadcast TV was pioneered in Japan and South Korea, following the switchover traditional and mobile TV broadcasters and cellular operators in many regions will launch mobile TV services that are forecast to attract over 500 million viewers by 2013.

There’s an important distinction to draw between content streamed to mobile handsets over cellular networks, and free-to-air broadcasting to mobile devices equipped with mobile TV tuners. “Mobile TV users have yet to value the medium properly because it has not been validated as an independent product and service,” says senior analyst Jeff Orr.

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Unwired View: You can now officially kiss commercial-driven mobile TV goodbye with the LG-HB620T mobile phone, the first in the world to offer DVB-T or Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial, the cost-free free cousin of Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H).

The LG-HB620T is set to be released first in Germany, and O2, T-Mobile, and Vodafone, will be among the first ones to get it. France, Greek, Czech and Austria are also possible targets for a consequent launch, where DVB-T is a commercialized service.

This handset, of course, is also more than just a ticket for free mobile TV. It’s also a high-speed mobile with HSDPA network support, and this is complemented full-blown Internet browsing on its 2-inch screen.

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Engadget: South Korea’s KAON Media has a new PMP on the way, and for whatever reason, we’ve found ourselves strangely attracted to what the KM35 has going on here.

The “Anywhere TV and Internet” device runs on Windows CE (and handles fresh-out-of-cinema films very well).

It features a 3.5-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, 4GB or 8GB NAND flash drive, WiFi, an SD expansion slot, optional FM tuner and your choice of DVB-T/H, ISDB-T or T-DMB TV tuners.

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PC World: Many Chinese unable to catch the Olympics on television will watch national hurdling hero Liu Xiang retain his 110 meter crown next week by simply switching on their cellphone.

That, at least, is the dream outcome for the backers of mobile TV, for whom the Games are a golden opportunity to burnish the reputation of a medium that has failed to live up to its potential since it was launched in 2004.

“For certain events, the most important thing is to learn the result instantly,” said Yun Weijie, president and chief executive of Telegent Systems, a Silicon Valley semiconductor maker.

“The quality of the images doesn’t matter sometimes,” he said. “That’s exactly the case with mobile TV and the Olympics.”

Telegent produces chips that let cellphones receive TV signals free of charge. By the end of 2007, the firm’s chips were in use in five million handsets throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, Yun said.

“TV will become a standard feature for cellphones in China by the end of this year, just like cameras,” Yun said.

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PR-inside: www.companiesandmarkets.com has added a new report – The Future of TV – The evolving landscape of HDTV, IPTV and mobile TV. 

Some key findings from this report:

• There has been a significant reduction in traditional media use since 2005, with the largest audience declines in TV, falling by 17% and national newspapers by 14%.
• The key driver of European digital TV uptake to 2010 is expected to be digital-to-terrestrial services. It will to drive uptake to 109m by the end of 2010, compared to 78m in the US.
• Digital cable will drive growth in the US by 2010, closely followed by digital satellite. Unlike Europe, digital terrestrial is not expected to be a significant digital TV plat form in the US.
• Asia-Pacific is expected to be the largest market for mobile TV subscriptions with around 76.3 million subscribers by 2012, representing a CAGR of 51.7%.
• A key reason for companies to invest in IPTV solutions is to increase the revenue they get from each subscriber. Providing a broader range of services to which custome rs can be cross-sold increases revenue potential.

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BusinessWeek: Mobile TV may yet come of age in Europe — the technology’s prospects have been given a boost by EU member states which have given their backing to the European Commission’s strategy for tiny telly.

European rollouts of the technology have been hampered by uncertainty around standards and resulting marketplace fragmentation. But with the majority of member states now stepping in line with the Commission, the Nokia-backed DVB-H looks set to become Europe’s mobile broadcast flavour of choice.

The EC believes having a preferred standard will help drive mobile telly forward. It published its strategy for accelerating the rolling of services back in July, which included promoting the use of DVB-H as the Euro standard.

Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for information society and media, said in a statement: “European mobile TV is a step closer to success following the endorsement by the Council of the Commission’s strategy for creating economies of scale in this important sector.”

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Mobile Guerilla: As promised, Nokia has started shipping the Nokia N77 mobile TV phone announced a few months ago at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona. The company will first begin shipping in Finland, Vietnam and India.

The Nokia N77 runs on Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition and it comes equipped with a 2 megapixel camera, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA player and a card slot for up to 2GB of memory. Other features include a 3.5 mm headphone jack and dedicated TV key.

The 3G/EDGE capable N77 will roll out in more DVB-H enabled countries in the months to come for an approximate price of 370 euros.

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BBC: TV could overtake gaming and music as the consumer’s favoured application for mobile phones, according to research.

Services in Japan, South Korea and Italy are attracting millions, confounding critics who said people would not watch TV on a small device. But consumers remain confused by what is on offer, as competing service offer different content and quality.

For the UK, a shortage of spectrum needed for mobile TV means adoption of services might have to wait until 2012. (…)

In Italy there are 500,000 subscribers to newly-launched mobile TV services such as that run by Vodafone in conjunction with Sky Italia. (…)

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Mobilementalism: Sony Ericsson have announced the new Sony Ericsson P1 smartphone, which has surprised the world, largely because we all thought it was going to be called the P700i!

In a break with previous numbering formats, the P1 replaces the existing Sony Ericsson P900i and P990i smartphones, and offers much better features in a smartphone that’s 25% smaller than a P990. (…)

The new P1i is no slouch when it comes to multimedia features either. It comes complete with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and a business card scanner (yup – just take a picture of a business card, and the P1 will not only capture the image, but capture all the information on the business card as data that will automatically be placed into your contacts list).

It also comes with a video camera and recorder, and supports not only video streaming, but H.264 playback for streaming mobile TV to the P1.

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Tech Digest: Traditional analogue radio stations could eventually be shut down, under proposals from Ofcom.As if analogue TV turnoff by 2012 isn’t enough, Ofcom would like to review AM stations in 2009, and FM stations in 2012. However, if digital radio use exceeds 50% sooner than this, the review could be brought forward.

Ofcom claim that the analogue bandwidth used by radio could be better used for mobile TV, more digital and community radio, and other new technologies. (…)

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BBC: Hanover is bracing itself for an influx of hi-tech firms and fans who will be in town for the giant Cebit show.

Billed as the world’s biggest hi-tech fair it will host more than 400,000 visitors during the six day event. Any and every type of technology will be on show at the trade fair but the main focus this year is likely to be on portable devices – be they phones or handheld computers. Despite the interest in the event, some big-name firms will be staying away.

–Handy helpers–

Cebit runs from 15-21 March and this year celebrates 21 years as a showcase for every kind of technology. Likely to catch the headlines in 2007 will be TV on mobiles, handsets that are as much fashion accessories as lifestyle aids and the continuing battles over high-definition DVD formats.

In 2006 interest in the show got a boost from the launch of Microsoft’s Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPC). (…) This year many more UMPCs are likely to be on show and some suggest they are starting to make good on the initial promise of the idea. Also expected at the show will be a slew of handsets that are keen to outdo Apple’s iPhone project. This touch-screen phone was announced in early 2006 and is expected to launch in the US in summer of 2007.

(more…)

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Cellular News: The European Commission is calling upon the European telecommunications industry to step up its efforts in mobile television and make a decision soon on a single broadcasting technology standard, European Commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding said Tuesday.

Reding told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview that she views the Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds technology, or DVB-H, as the best broadcasting technology for the region’s telecom industry.

DVB is an open standard for digital television developed by a European industry consortium. Some telecom companies are already using DVB-H, but others are using rival technologies making it difficult for handset makers to come up with cellphones that can connect to the different broadcasting technologies.

Mobile television in Europe has been largely unsuccessful so far, due to technical issues and a lukewarm response to the new service from consumers.

But industry experts point to the fact that mobile TV in general is still in its infancy, and only in few countries – for instance South Korea – has it taken off and led to extra revenue for telecom companies.

Hamid Akhavan, the head of the wireless unit of Europe’s largest telecom company by revenue, Deutsche Telekom, recently said he doesn’t expect mobile TV to become a big revenue generator in the foreseeable future.

Nevertheless, Reding said the European Commission has high expectations for the future of the medium. The commission estimates that mobile TV will generate EUR11.4 billion in revenue globally in 2009, with around 50 million handsets able to receive a mobile TV service.

Europe can and must play a “decisive role” in this industry, Reding said.

She points towards China and the country’s big efforts to launch a mobile TV service for the Olympic Games being held in Beijing in 2008.

“Against this background, I’m not very impressed with the progress the industry and governments in Europe have made so far,” Reding said.

She called upon both legislators and the telecom industry to speed up the decision-making process. “The time for decisions is now – otherwise mobile TV will miss the boat to the European soccer championships in 2008,” she said.

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