Action Urged on Mobile TV

A significant number of European countries still need to make decisions to be able to exploit the current market potential of Mobile TV.
Thats the conclusion of a study published recently by the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum (bmcoforum). The study analyses the status of national licensing frameworks for terrestrial mobile broadcast TV in 23 countries, including 21 from Europe. It concludes that a significant number of countries are still lagging behind the most advanced countries in defining their regulatory framework, including the licensing conditions and processes.
In Italy, where Mobile TV services have been operating for around two years, about one million users own Mobile TV-capable devices. The granting of licences has been completed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and is in process in France and Hungary. Therefore, the majority of central European countries have assigned terrestrial frequencies, established regulatory and licensing frameworks and have started or are about to launch mobile broadcast TV services in 2008.
Other countries such as Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Spain, as well as the majority of Northern and East European countries have not yet decided upon licensing conditions and processes. These processes normally take quite some time and effort requiring public consultations and law changes. bmcoforum therefore sees an urgent need for these countries to speed up the decision process, in order to take advantage of the present market opportunities for terrestrial mobile broadcast TV.
As, according to the European Commission, mobile broadcast TV can reach a worldwide market worth up to 20 billion (15.8 billion) by 2011, bmcoforum is urging all national regulators to allow for a fast service kick-off in their countries, says bmcoforum Executive Director, Prof. Dr. Claus Sattler. “Further analysis of regulation and licensing practice, and of the experiences of countries more advanced in these processes, is under way at bmcoforum, to support implementations of regulatory frameworks in countries which are about to decide on their regulatory frameworks and preferred business models.”
You can download a copy of the full report here.