Italia : free Mobile TV offers

The Italian branch of cell phone network 3 has stolen a march on rivals by introducing free mobile TV.
Italia 3 users are now offered free terrestrial coverage from Mediaset and RAI, plus Al Gore's green channel Current TV. Italia 3 is even launching its own network, La3.
Its mobile customers will be the first outside of Japan and South Korea to get free TV.
Observers note that 3's parent company Hutchison Telecom is based in Hong Kong and therefore aware of the latest consumer trends emerging from the Far East.
For Euros 2 ($3.09) a week, Italia 3 customers can also watch Sky Sport Mobile, Sky Cinema Mobile and Sky Tg 24 on their cell phones.
Italy has emerged as one of Europe's leading markets for mobile TV, with Italia 3 the number one player.
Vodafone and Telecom Italia Mobile have also begun investing in this area, however, in which TV is beamed to handsets using the technology known as DVB-H.
Analysts at Datamonitor predict that by the end of this decade, mobile TV services will generate $5.5 billion in subscription revenues.

Orange Sports TV Channel on Personal Mobile Television (France)

Orange France has obtained a DVB-H mode frequency for its "Orange Sports" TV channel, following the request for applications issued on 6 November 2007 by the French Audiovisual Regulator.

Orange Sports TV, the sports news and discovery channel, will thus be one of the first channels to be broadcast on mobiles in France, via the new DVB-H standard. Winning this frequency will enable Orange Sports TV to continue its development and expand its audience. The channel, launched on 6 September 2007, is already available on TV capable mobiles, on the Internet and on Orange TV.

Orange Sports TV is the first French television channel specially created for multi-media broadcasting: TV, Internet, and mobile. Orange Sports TV is a sports information channel with a highly specialised team of writers and crew who are lent support from the experience and content provided by its prestigious partners such as CNOSF (The French Sports and National Olympic Committee) and the Sporever Group.

Samsung and Nokia to Collaborate on Mobile TV and DRM Standard

To encourage greater adoption of broadcast mobileTV services and accelerate service deployment, Samsung and Nokiatoday announced they will work to achieve interoperability among theirDVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) enabled mobile devices and theopen standards based Nokia network services system.

The handsetmanufacturers will work together to support solutions based on the open OMABCAST standard available for operator partners interested in deployingmulti-vendor mobile TV services and trials in 2007 and onward. "Within DVB-H technology, Samsung has already commercialized handsetsbased on the CBMS OSF standard, and will develop the OMA BCAST standardbased mobile TV handset. Its inclusion in our product portfolios willenhance our customers' flexibility in choosing suitable standards based ontheir business models," says Kwang Suk Hyun, Senior Vice President ofAlliance Team of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

"Nokia warmly welcomes the collaboration in accelerating the adoptionof DVB-H based mobile TV services to the market. We see that the OMA BCASTstandard is essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale,"says Harri Mannisto, Director, Multimedia, Nokia. "Further, thewell-defined service and content protection profiles within the OMA BCASTstandard such as the already now available OMA DRM, provides the ideal pathtowards standardized solutions enabling a coherent and open market forsuccessful worldwide mobile TV deployments." The deployment of mobile TV services will offer new businessopportunities for companies across the value chain, including content andbroadcast companies, mobile service providers, infrastructure and handsetmanufacturers, and technology providers.

The availability of interoperableDVB-H enabled devices and services is a key factor in further opening upthe market. DVB-H is an effective technology for deploying broadcast mobile TVamong the many digital technologies available to deliver mobile TVservices. DVB-H technology offers high service level quality, low batteryconsumption and offers the end-user the ability to simultaneously receivebroadcasts while using other mobile services such as telephony and internetaccess on their device.

In parallel to supporting mobile operators launching mobile TV servicesbased on existing technologies in their networks, Samsung and Nokia areboth active in ongoing standardization and technology development tooptimize the broadcast mobile TV experience. The companies will work oninteroperability efforts using the open OMA standard while continuing toparticipate in industry-wide interoperability efforts within the relatedstandardization bodies.