Business & Finance: Mobile TV Strategies

Broadcast mobile TV services increasingly are set to play a supporting role in Western 

operators’ service portfolios rather than becoming the primary revenue driver proponents had originally hoped. Compounding matters for operators, new reports suggest in many markets telcos are likely to play second fiddle to TV broadcasters and Internet companies that specialise in on-demand programming and free or inexpensive content.

The new year has marked further blow to the European Union-backed broadcast mobile TV standard DVB-H. In January Virgin Mobile announced it will no longer launch mobile TV services based on DVB-H in France in the autumn; Virgin was among 13 broadcasters and operators authorised by media regulator CSA last April to provide DVB-H services—although Orange, SFR, Bouygues and Free all last year said they will not invest in the technology. The Virgin Mobile decision was swiftly followed by Irish regulator Comreg scrapping plans to offer a mobile broadcast TV licence due to a lack of interest from operators, despite a trial of DVB-H services by O2 in Ireland as long ago as 2007.

Perhaps most significantly, Telekom Austria, Orange and Hutchison 3G almost unnoticed pulled the plug on their DVB-H services over Media Broadcast’s network in Austria on 31 December, having reportedly signed up fewer than 15,000 customers in total in two years.