Mobile TV needs magnification
- Article 3 of 7
- iSight, January 2006
Mobile telephones will not move fully into the live TV market until the standards are agreed and the business models clarified.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | All 3 Pages
Olson suggests that a ‘push’ model, where content is downloaded during periods of network calm, can augment the live streaming of TV channels, improve the quality of the videos, reduce bandwidth requirements and give consumers this freedom – within certain digital rights management restrictions.
Gary Hughes, chief executive of Digital 5,provider of home media centre software, agrees that portability of content will be one of the main draws for consumers. “In the long term, there’s going to be convergence. People are going to bring their mobile phones into their homes and they’re going to be control points on a seamless home network.” He feels that for mobile TV to become a success, consumers will need to be able to seamlessly move content from phone to home entertainment system to PC and back.
3G
Strengths: Networks already exist and have customers.Weaknesses: Does not scale well; better suited for clips than longer content.
Likelihood of success: Weak in the long-term.
DVB-H
Strengths: Low power consumption. Data throughput four times T-DMB. Can be included in DVB-T multiplex.Weaknesses: Requires more infrastructure investment than T-DMB; greater bandwidth requirements mean it’s harder to find free spectrum for DVB-H services.
Likelihood of success: Strong, although unlikely to achieve universal dominance.
MediaFLO
Strengths: Draws on strengths of other technologies such as DVB-H; backed by originator of CDMA standard.Weaknesses: Has little support (none outside US).
Likelihood of success: Slight.
STD-B24
Strengths: Already in use.Weaknesses: Not adopted anywhere outside Japan.
Likelihood of success: Small.
T-DMB
Strengths: Easy to adopt into existing DAB network.Weaknesses: Offers fewer channels to content providers; requires more power.
Likelihood of success: Moderate – will capture some regions, but not the majority.
Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | All 3 Pages