Japan Launches Commercial Mobile TV Service

As promised, Japan has launched its commercial mobile TV service on April 1st, using the local ISDB-T technology. The mobile TV service is called "OneSeg", since it uses one segment out of the 13 available segments in the ISDB-T terrestrial digital TV services in Japan. Initially the broadcast is identical to the regular analog TV broadcast, and is offered for free, but the operators plan to expand it in the future with mobile-specific content and interactive services.