EU champions Mobile TV standard

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Mobile TV got a welcome boost from the European Union yesterday in its decision to urge member countries to adopt the DVB-H mobile TV standard.

In a move should help rapidly evolve the development of TV on mobile phones, the deadlock between competing technologies can now finally be broken.

In an official announcement on Monday, Viviane Redeing, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media said

“For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology. This is why I am glad that with today’s decision, taken by the Commission in close coordination with the Member States and the European Parliament, the EU endorse DVB-H as the preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting”

Reding’s announcement highlighted the key advantage of a single technology across Europe as enabling “the necessary market scale to launch mass Mobile TV services across the EU”. It also stated the benefits to consumers who will be able to watch TV on their mobile devices at any time, anywhere across Europe.

In an article for Information Week, W. David Gardner highlighted some research highlighted by the EU commission which estimates the world-wide mobile TV market being worth $31 billion by 2011.