Mobile TV hampered by competing standards

There's been a lot of debate about whether or not people want to watch TV on their mobile phones, but research firm Strategy Analytics is warning that the fragmentation of standards is hampering progress.

While Europe pushes the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) standard, others are being developed elsewhere in the world. In the US, Qualcomm is working on the MediaFlo standard. The company also make the CDMA chipsets used in mobile phones around the world, so its influence is considerable.

Speaking about the findings in its report, rather stodgily called 'Enabling Technologies: Entertainment At Heart Of OEMs Brand & Profit Strategies', Chris Ambrosio, director of Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics, said: "These regulatory delays, combined with the success of ISDB-T in Japan, the momentum of DMB services in Korea, the commitment of the two largest operators in the US to using MediaFlo, and the rising chorus of support for MBMS in 3GPP2 will create a much more fragmented mid-term for mobile TV adoption globally."

Mobile TV services are springing up now in the UK. Vodafone was quick to launch its service in late 2005, Virgin came out with its Lobster mobile TV phone in Q4 2006, while more recently 3 released its X-Series service.

Among its multimedia services, the latter streams internet TV to the handset and allows owners to access and watch their home TV via Sling Media's Slingbox. The Slingbox is a nifty device which gives you complete control of your home TV from anywhere in the world, as long as you have an internet connection and a device to use it on - usually a computer, but in this case a Nokia handset.

I tested the service in February and at first it was great to access the TV via 3G. But the thrill soon waned and by the time 3 asked for the return of the handset it was sitting unused, so I didn't feel the loss.

I still think there's a market for TV to mobile handsets, but standards are not the only barrier. There's still the emotional barrier of convincing people to watch TV on the tiny screen, and the need for better services before it can really appeal to consumers. And of course, every time I've tested a mobile TV service it has caned the battery life, which won't please owners who find their handset is drained of life after only a couple of hours of TV use.