Bad Week for Mobile Broadcast TV

Some dark shadows on the future of dedicated Mobile Broadcast TV networks have been cast last week (thanks to Dick Pache for sending in the info).

On Thursday, German press reported that the consortium that won a DVB-H license in Germany, and started transmitting on June 1st this year, is about to shut down its DVB-H service. The apparent reason is that the mobile operators in Germany, who failed to win the license, would not provide DVB-H handsets to support this service, and prefer instead to offer to their subscribers handsets that are capable of receiving free-to-air terrestrial Digital TV broadcasts using the existing DVB-T network. Vodafone Germany CEO warned back in May that DVB-T handsets were threatening the business model for DVB-H, and that Vodafone wouldn't offer DVB-H handsets with a TV subscription fee, since they would cause subscribers to pay less for other mobile services.

And on Friday, Mobile Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) in Japan said it would shut down its satellite mobile TV service, which has been in operation since Ocrober 2004. In this case, the Japanese free-to-air ISDB-T service (OneSeg) is blamed for the low popularity of the subscription-based satellite service. Over 20 million handsets supporting ISDB-T have shipped in Japan in the last two years.

Mobilkom Austria Launches Hybrid UMTS/DVB-H MobileTV Service

Mobilkom Austria is launching a new mobile TV service today called A1 TV Plus. The service is unique in that it combines mobile broadcast TV using DVB-H technology, with unicast streaming over the UMTS 3G cellular network. The service will include 15 DVB-H TV channels, 7 UMTS TV channels, and 5 radio channels. Some of the DVB-H channels will also be available via UMTS outside of the DVB-H coverage area.

The service is supported by the Nokia N77 handset, and will cost 9 Euros per month (viewing DVB-H channels will be free until the end of 2008). Mobilkom Austria is also offering its customers free viewing of 6 DVB-T channels (regular digital TV broadcast) on the LG-HB620 handset, and viewing the UMTS channels on a PC using the Huawei E510 HSPA modem.

KPN Launches Mobile Broadcast TV Service in the Netherlands

Reuters reports that KPN, the Dutch telecoms group, is staring to offer a mobile broadcast TV service based on DVB-H technology this month. The service will cost 10 Euros per month, and will include 10 channels. Samsung and LG will supply the initial handsets to support the service, and a Nokia device will be added at a later stage.

13 French Mobile TV Licenses Awarded

CSA, the French media regulator, has awarded mobile TV licenses to 13 TV channels. The French Mobile Broadcast TV service, using DVB-H technology, is expected to start by the end of this year. It is interesting to note that only two of the channels, EuroSport and CanalPlus will charge a subscription fee for viewing, while all the other channels will be included in the basic, "free" mobile TV package (part of the mobile subscription fee).

Mobile TV Possible Without 3G or Mobile Broadcast Networks

According to a new market research published this week by Analysys Mason, mobile operators should look at the alternatives to delivering TV content to mobile devices, using WiFi and sideloading (transfer of content to a mobile device through a PC). Research on mobile TV has shown that many people use the service in their homes, where broadband network connectivity is available, and content can be loaded directly to mobile devices using WiFi, or sideloaded from a PC over Bluetooth or USB. Accessing Mobile TV content in this manner enables higher quality, less waiting time, and a challenge to mobile operator business models.

AT&T Launches Mobile Broadcast TV Service Today

AT&T is launching its mobile broadcast TV service today in the USA, based on Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology. The service will be priced at $15 a month for 10 TV channels, and will be available in 58 markets. AT&T is also launching two new handsets today to support the service: The LG Vu and the Samsung Access.

AT&T To Launch Mobile Broadcast TV in May

AT&T announced that it will start offering a Mobile Broadcast TV service in the USA based on Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology in May this year. The service will include 10 channels, two of them exclusive to AT&T, and will be supported by two handsets: The Samsung Access and the LG Vu. Pricing for the service has not been announced.

AT&T is the second provider of MediaFLO mobile TV in the USA, following Verizon who launched the Verizon Vcast mobile TV service one year ago. Verizon announced that it will also add two exclusive channels to its service, ESPN Radio and MTV Tr3s. However, Verizon has not released any subscriber numbers for its mobile broadcast TV service yet.

Mobile Broadcast TV Users in Korea Reach 11 Million

Telecoms Korea reported yesterday that as of February 29th 2008, the number of satellite DMB subscribers reached 1.31 million, and the number of terrestrial DMB users reached 9.69 million, giving a total of 11 million mobile broadcast TV users in Korea (I am using the term "users" for T-DMB since it is a free-to-air service, and not a subscription service).

Monthly sales of T-DMB devices are in the range of 400-500K a month, meaning that by the end of March the number of T-DMB users alone will pass the 10 million mark. S-DMB growth is not reported in the article, but it seems that S-DMB has stalled in Korea since similar numbers were reported at the end of 2007.

Strand Consulting: No Business Model for Mobile Broadcast TV

CIO Magazine quotes John Strand from Strand Consulting providing a grim outlook for mobile broadcast TV services. Some of the highlights include:

• Only Nokia and other vendors can make money from mobile TV today, because they can sell network equipment and phones.
• Operators can't profit from mobile broadcast TV since consumers won't be willing to pay enough to make up for content costs.
• The future of TV is on demand, so supporters of mobile broadcast TV are betting on a dying technology.

EU Selects DVB-H As Preferred Mobile TV Standard

The European Commission has selected the DVB-H standard as the preferred technology for mobile broadcast TV transmissions in Europe. The commission will promote the standard in all 27 member states, in an attempt to establish a single market for Mobile TV. Member states will not be required, however, to ban other standards from their market.

PacketVideo Launches Mobile TV Add-on Device

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, PacketVideo is demonstrating a mobile broadcast TV add-on receiver which enables TV playback on any mobile device with WiFi capabilities. The device will be available in different versions for DVB-H, MediaFLO and WiMax, and is compatible with Nokia N-series, Apple iPhone and HTC Smartphone devices.

S3 showed a similar add-on device by Nokia, which receives DVB-H and sends it to compatible mobile phones over Bluetooth. S3 is providing the DVB-H protocol stack for the Nokia N810 Internet tablet which supports the add-on accessory device.

Broadcom Enters Mobile TV Chip Market

Broadcom announced yesterday the BCM2940, a 65 nanometer mobile TV receiver chip which combines a dual-mode demodulator and tuner, and supports both DVB-H and DVB-T. Broadcom claims that the chip reduces power consumption by up to 40% and footprint by up to 30% compared to current solutions.

This is Broadcom's first offering to the mobile TV chip market, which is already dominated by several players including DiBcom, Siano, TI, ADI, Qualcomm, Newport Media and others.

AT&T Mobile TV Rumors

According to sources quoted by RCR Wireless News, AT&T is planning to launch its own MediaFLO-based Mobile Broadcast TV service in the US next week, following Verizon's launch of the service last March. The service will launch on February 5th, and will include two additional exclusive channels, on top of the 8 basic channels which Verizon also offers. It will feature the LG Vu (CU-920) handset, which is similar to LG's Prada and Viewty handsets, priced between $200 and $250.

ABI Research: 462 Mobile TV Subscribers by 2012

According to a new market research report published by ABI Research, the number of global subscribers to Mobile TV services is expected to reach 462 million by 2012, driven mainly by the expansion of 3G network deployment, and flat-rate pricing plans. ABI Research sees Asia-Pacific as the region with the most prominent growth, expanding from 24 million subscribers in 2007 to more than 260 million in 2012.

It is interesting to compare these figures with the recent findings in a report titled "Mobile TV in Asia", published by the Cable & Satellite Broadcast Association of Asia, as reported in TelevisionPoint. According to the CSBAA report, the number of mobile TV subscribers in Asia will increase from 15 million in 2007 to 76.3 million in 2012, out of 156 million global subscribers. The most probable explanation for this difference is that the CSBAA report refers to Mobile Broadcast TV subscribers only, while the ABI Research report refers to total Mobile TV subscribers, including both cellular networks and mobile broadcast networks.

French Mobile TV Subscribers Reach 1.2M

According to ScreenDigest, the number of mobile TV subscribers in France as of December 207 has reached 1.2 million. At the Telecom 2007 conference in Paris, Orange France reported a total of 1 million mobile TV subscribers, while SFR claimed to have 200,000 mobile TV subscribers. ScreenDigest notes that both cellular operators have witnesses a subscriber growth of 40% in the last quarter, driven by the launch of unlimited data, video, TV and music plans.

Screen Digest: 140M Mobile TV Subscribers by 2011

According to a new market research report titled "Mobile TV: Business Models and Opportunities" published by Screen Digest, there will be 140M mobile TV subscribers worldwide by 2011, and global revenues will reach 4.4B Euros. However, the report states that in the short term network operators are not expected to make much profit from the mobile TV services.

In terms of business models, the report predicts that free to air services, that currently drive customer growth in Asia, will not be popular elsewhere since the business model behind these services is not proven. Therefore, 90% of the revenues in 2011 will come from subscription-based services.

Korea's Satellite Mobile TV Calls for Help

The world's only satellite-based mobile broadcast TV service is in deep trouble. According to an article in the Korea Times, TU Media which operates the S-DMB service in Korea has accumulated a debt that will reach 270 Billion Won (about $270M) by the end of this year. There are 1.2M subscribers to the service, but their number hasn't grown since this summer.

One of the main obstacles for the service is regulation: The S-DMB service is not allowed to broadcast the main Korean terrestrial broadcast channels KBS, MBC, SBS and EBS. TU Media's request from the government to ease these regulatory restrictions has been unanswered, and their plea for additional funding from SKT, TU Media's largest shareholder, has also been declined. According to the Korea Times, there are reports that SKT may even withdraw from the S-DMB business in the near future.

Mobile TV License in Germany Awarded to T-Systems

Screen Digest reports that T-Systems Media & Broadcast (TSMB), a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has received a license to broadcast DVB-H in the UHF frequency band from the German Federal Network Agency.

TSMB plans to start the commercial mobile TV service in spring 2008 in Hanover, and expand to the capitals of the 15 federal states by the end of 2008. According to the license terms, the broadcaster is expected to cover 90 per cent of the German population by 2015. Additional mobile TV broadcasting licenses will be awarded in Germany by the end of this year.

AT&T Delays Mobile TV Launch in the USA

AT&T announced that it is delaying the roll out of its planned MediaFLO mobile TV service in the USA to the beginning of 2008. Originally, the service was scheduled to start by the fourth quarter of 2007. The company didn't give a specific reason for the delay, other than stating that they want to make sure that the service meets customers' expectations.

Mobile TV Subscriber Forecast Breaks 2B Mark

According to a new market research report published by Telecom Trends International, the number of global mobile TV users will grow from 20 million today to over 2 billion by 2013. As far as I recall, this is the highest subscriber number forecast published by a market research firm to date. The previous record was set by ABI Research, who predicted last year that the global number of mobile TV users will grow to 514M by 2011.

The Telecom Trends International report also sets a record for mobile TV revenues, predicting that by 2013 the global revenues from mobile TV will reach $134.5B. This figure is more than 10 times higher than any other mobile TV revenue figure published by market research firms in the past.

Aloha Networks Sells Mobile TV Spectrum

Aloha Networks, the parent company of US Mobile TV operator HiWire, has sold its 700 MHz spectrum to AT&T for $2.5B. It is not clear yet whether AT&T plans to use the spectrum for mobile TV broadcast services, or for wireless web access enabling combined voice/data/video services. It seems that the second option is more probable, since AT&T has already signed a deal with MediaFLO for using its mobile TV broadcast network. In that case, the deal signals another hit to the global mobile broadcast TV market, after the shut down of the Virgin and Modeo services earlier this year.

The Ups and Downs of Mobile TV

Mobile TV has always been a controversial issue. The big players who sell handsets, network equipment and mobile services, keep taking the optimistic side, and pushing the analysts in that direction. On the other hand, there are always people who ask "Who would like to view TV on a a tiny screen, and pay for it?". In the last few weeks it seems that the debate is shifting more to the negative side, especially when discussing subscription-based mobile TV services.

Still on the optimistic side, Juniper Research is predicting that the number of users who receive mobile broadcast TV services will increase from 12M in 2007 to 120M by 2012, with service revenues expected to exceed $6.6B. And France is pushing forward with the introduction of Mobile TV services in the summer of 2008, just in time for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The launch of DVB-H in France during 2008 follows the introduction of DVB-H in Italy during the 2006 Soccer World Cup, and in Finland during 2007. While the Italian service enjoyed a high adoption rate initially, the latest reports show that service uptake has flattened. And the service in Finland was stalled for several months due to the lack of compatible handsets and compelling content. The situation in Europe is quite inline with Gartner's recent survey, which found that only 5 percent of European subscribers are interested in watching video or TV on their phones.

Industry analysts have also shifted their positions in view of the market situation, demonstrated by the discontinuation of mobile TV services offered by Virgin and BT Movio in the UK, and by Modeo in the USA. The EE Times says that Mobile TV chip makers "struggles to hold on", as the market has proven successful only in countries that offer free-to-air broadcasts (Japan and Korea). Stephen Wellman from Information Week asks "When Will Anyone Actually Watch Mobile TV?", claiming that small screens and poor marketing have probably killed the service, although service providers in the USA don't reveal any numbers.

Mike Masnik at TechDirt writes about "The Ongoing Blind Belief In Mobile Broadcast TV", stating that mobile users don't have the time for watching broadcast TV programs, and would prefer short video clips on demand instead. He also says that people can broadcast their own TV from home, and watch it on their mobile device using a SlingBox and an unlimited data plan, meaning they don't have to pay mobile operators for such services. Indeed, the introduction of SlingPlayer Mobile for SymbinOS is likely to be a disruptive move in this direction. Russel Shaw at ZDNet takes the same position, claiming that "Mobile TV is So Overhyped".

So what's your take on the future of mobile TV, and in particular subscription-based Mobile Broadcast TV services? Please comment on this post to voice your opinion.

Virgin and Modeo Discontinue their Mobile TV Services

BT Movio and Virgin have decided to pull the plug on their DAB-IP based service,which was launched in the UK last October. Among reasons cited for this action are lack of user acceptance, lack of compatible handsets, and the decision by the European Union to back the rival DVB-H technology.

In the US, Crown Castle decided to stop the DVB-H Mobile TV service of its Modeo subsidiary, and to spin-off the company by leasing the spectrum and the assets it owns to two venture capital firms. Crown Castle did not provide any reasons for this step, but it is probably related to Modeo's failure in getting any mobile operator on board its service, and the success of the rival MediaFLO service which has been adopted by Verizon and AT&T.

7.3M Mobile Broadcast TV Users in Japan

Screen Digest reported this week that the total number of Mobile Broadcast TV handsets sold in Japan has reached 7.3M by the end of Q1 2007, according to official numbers released by the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA). Japan launched its own standard for Mobile Broadcast TV, called ISDB-T or OneSeg, in April 2006.

APAC Mobile Broadcast TV Market Heating Up

Serveral announcements made this week at CommunicAsia 2007 and Broadcast Asia 2007 in Singapore signal a wave of upcoming trials and commercial services of mobile broadcast TV in the Asia-Pacific region.

MiTV and Nokia announced that they will launch a commercial DVB-H service in Malaysia in the second half of 2007. The infrastructure for the service will be integrated and maintained by Nokia-Siemens Networks, and the first handset to support the service will be the new Nokia N77.

Philippine Multi-media System, Inc. and UDCast announced that a commercial DVB-H service in the Philippines will also be launched this year, following a successful trial held in Manila. During the trial, PMSI is broadcasting 8 TV channels to Samsung DVB-H handsets, but the variety of both channels and devices is expected to increase at the time of the commercial service launch.

And in Hong Kong, cellular operator PCCW will conduct a technical trial of Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology which will run through November this year. Another MediaFLO trial is currently underway in Taiwan, run by China Network Systems and Taiwan Television Media.

Motorola's MediaFLO Mobile TV Handset

According to PhoneScoop, the FCC has revealed the Motorola Z6tv phone which supports Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile broadcast TV technology, and Verizon's VCast Mobile TV service. The phone has not been announced by Motorola yet, and has been revealed through the FCC approval process for the US market.

According to the FCC webiste, the phone also has EV-DO high-speed cellular data support, a 2 megapixel camera and USB connectivity. This is the first Motorola phone outside of Korea that supports mobile broadcast TV. Previously Motorola announced a Satellite DMB phone called "Moto View" for the Korean market.

DVB-H Information in Hebrew

Orange Israel has an excellent website about the history and future of communications, which explains many technologies and buzzwords in mobile and wireless communication in simple terms, using beautiful flash animations. On the website you can find information in Hebrew about DVB-H, GPS, NFC, H.264, MIMO, and many others.

80M Mobile Broadcast TV Subscribers by 2011

eMarketer published a new market research report this week, predicting that by 2011, 80M users worldwide will pay for mobile broadcast TV services. It is interesting to compare this forecast with the data from In-Stat published on the same day, predicting 125M mobile broadcast TV users worldwide by 2011 (however, this number may include free mobile TV services as well). Another interesting comparison would be with eMarketer's own research from last year, which predicted 100M mobile broadcast TV subscribers by 2009.

eMarketer is also forecasting that by 2011, an additional 120M users will pay for mobile video and TV services delivered over cellular networks, and that the total number of mobile video and TV users, including both paid and free services, will increase from 40M users in 2006 to 754M users in 2011.

In terms of revenues, eMarketer is forecasting a total revenue of $12.7B for mobile video and TV services, comprising of $5B from cellular video and TV services, and $7.7B from mobile broadcast TV subscription.

New US Mobile TV Standard Under Development

EETimes has reported that the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the US standards group responsible for digital TV, is developing a new standard for mobile TV called ATSC-M/H (ATSC-Mobile/Handheld). The standard will be targeted at the delivery of TV services to mobile and handheld devices, and is designed to be backward-compatible with the existing ATSC digital terrestrial TV standard. ATSC is currently used in the US to provide High-Definition TV broadcasts to TVs in the home.

The ATSC-M/H standard is actually the third standard being proposed for extending the existing ATSC broadcasts in the US market for mobile reception. The two other standards are A-VSB promoted by Samsung and Rohde & Schwarz, and MPH proposed by LG and Harris.

VCast MediaFLO Service Review

USA Today has published a review of Verizon's VCast Mobile TV service, which is based on Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology. The reviewer was quite satisifed by the overall quality and content, but notes some issues with the reception in Orlando and the external antenna. Similar to my experience from 3GSM, the reviewer notes an excellent channel switching time of only 2 seconds, compared to 8 seconds with the Modeo DVB-H service which he tested in New York.

Mobile TV Services and Trials Update

Below are some of the recent announcements regarding mobile TV trials and commercial services.

Commercial Services:

• Verizon launched its VCast Mobile TV service, based on Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology, in 20 US states. The service includes 8 TV channels, and costs $15 a month. Also see the analysis from infoSync.
• AT&T, the largest US wireless operator, has announced that it will also use Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology in the mobile TV service it plans to launch during the fourth quarter of this year.
• EchoStar has invested $40M in TU Media, the Korean company which runs the country's S-DMB service. This will make EchoStar the second largest shareholder in the company, after mobile operator SK Telecom.

Trials:

• Modeo launched a "beta" version of the their DVB-H service in New York City. The service features 5 TV channels, and has some issues with picture quality and channel switching time - see the impressions by Gizmodo. According to the EE Times, The FCC gave Modeo permission to increase their power by a factor of 10 in urban areas and 20 in rural areas, which might help to solve some of these issues.
• O2 and Arqiva have launched a trial of DVB-H in Ireland, with 350 users and 13 TV channels. The trial will continue until August.
• Qualcomm, China Network Systems (CNS) and Taiwan Television Enterprises (TTE) will launch a trial of MediaFLO technology in Taiwan. The trial will feature 4 TV channels from CNS and 3 from TTE.
• Mobilkom Austria and Hutchinson 3G will launch a DVB-H trial in Austria during April. The trial will include 400 users, and will be funded by the Austria Regulation Authority RTR.

3GSM 2007 Mobile TV Highlights

As expected, 3GSM 2007 was packed with Mobile TV demonstrations everywhere - including handsets, chipsets, network infrastructure, enabling technologies and content.

On the handset side, the show's major announcement was probably the Nokia N77 DVB-H handset. As rumored just before the show, this is a mid-range handset, which is targeted at initial DVB-H deployments in Vietnam, Italy and Finland. I took a look at the video quality, and it was quite good at 15 frames per second. However, every minute or two there was an occasional error in the stream (picture freezes or breaks into blocks). The demonstrator at the N77 stand in the Nokia booth claimed that this was due to the "crowded network at the show", which seems highly unlikely since DVB-H is a broadcast network... The channel switching time was also quite long, at 4-6 seconds. The long switching time was also apparent in other DVB-H demos at the show, and I also noticed this issue in CES demos last month, which leads to the conclusion that this is probably an inherent issue with current DVB-H implementations. The Nokia representative told me that the handset will cost 370 Euros without subsidies, and has a 5 hour TV viewing time, and 7.5 days standby time.

Another DVB-H handset was demonstrated by Sagem. Sagem is not a top-tier mobile handset vendor, but their myMobileTV handset is very nicely designed, and features an innovative auto-rotate feature which rotates and expands the image based on the direction in which the device is being held, using an acceleration sensor. In this demo I also witnessed the long channel switching time, and the occasional frame error every 1-2 minutes. The Sagem demonstrator came up with another original excuse for this, claiming that it was due to a low battery on the device (although the device was connected to a power supply and charging...). Another interesting handset demonstrated at the show was the Samsung SGH-F510, a slim DVB-H phone which blends well with the company's "thin is in" design.

Qualcomm showed the MediaFLO handsets which will launch with Verizon's service at the end of this quarter, the Samsung SCH-U620 and the LG VX9400. Qualcomm also showed a prototype handset of its own design, which is used mainly for testing the service. Judging by the video quality, it seems that MediaFLO currently has the edge: Frame rate is about 20-25 frames per second, and channel switching time is 2 seconds. MediaFLO also had a larger variety of channels at the show: 20 TV channels vs. only 9 channels which were available on the SIDSA DVB-H demo network at the show.

Other vendors were showing unicast live TV over cellular networks, circuit-switched streaming (using 3G video telephony for content delivery), and TV interactivity solutions. Compared to last year's show, 3GSM 2007 demonstrated the maturity of mobile TV technology and the range of available handsets, driven by commercially deployed services. However, subscriber numbers for paid mobile broadcast TV services in Europe remain low, both for DVB-H and for DAB-IP, so the question of return on investment still remains.

3 Italia Signed Up 300,00 Mobile TV Subscribers in 2006

Variety International reports that 3 Italia has signed up more than 300,000 subscribers to its DVB-H mobile TV service, but overall growth is occurring at a slower-than-expected rate. 3 expected to reach 500,000 subscribers by the end of 2006, but did not reach its target despite a surge in subscribers during the run up to Christmas, and 3 Italia's round-the-clock coverage of "Big Brother."

3 Italia is planning to offer a new phone, with a 4.3 inch screen, in hope of attracting more subscribers to its service. The company will also export its knowledge to other countries, starting with a 3-month trial of DVB-H with Malaysia's Maxis Communication.

3GSM 2007 Mobile TV Preview

The industry is preparing for this year's 3GSM conference in Barcelona, which will take place from Monday 12/2 until Thursday 15/2. According to a poll by EETimes Europe, mobile TV will be the key topic at 3GSM this year, and indeed several companies are preparing to showcase their mobile TV products at the show. These demonstrations will be assisted by a 3GSM DVB-H network operated by Spanish mobile TV technology provider SISDA and local operator Albertis telecom. The network will broadcast 10 mobile TV channels, including MTV, CNBC, CNN and some Spanish TV channels. One of the channels will be 3GSM TV, which broadcasts live news and content directly from the show.

Some of the other demonstrations at the show:

* According to sources quoted by Reuters, Nokia is planning to reveal a mid-range N-Series mobile phone called N77, capable of receiving DVB-H broadcasts. The phone is supposed to be in the 200-300 Euro range, as opposed to Nokia's N-92 DVB-H handset which currently costs over 600 Euros.

* Chinese handset vendor ZTE will demonstrate its own "N-Series" DVB-H mobile phone, the N7100, which is based on Siano's SMS1000 mobile TV receiver chipset. The N7100 handset, which features HSDPA high-speed cellular connectivity, will be distributed in Italy by Telecom Italia Mobile in the next few weeks.

* Mobile TV chip vendor Frontier Silicon and mobile TV software vendor S3 will demonstrate a multi-mode reference design for mobile TV based on Frontier Silicon's FS1030 "Paradiso" moible TV receiver which supports DVB-H, DVB-T, T-DMB and DAB-IP; and on S3's "onHandTV" multi-standard mobile TV client software.

* NEC and Telegent systems will demonstrate a high-definition, low-power mobile TV platform running on NEC's application processor, which allows up to four and a half hours of viewing time.

* TI, Orange and Viaccess will demonsrate content and access protection for mobile TV services, utlizing TI’s M-Shield security framework, which is integrated into the OMAP application processor platform.

* NXP software (formerly Philips Software) will demonstrate a full mobile TV software solution running on TI's OMAPV1030 baseband application processor.

* Ericsson will demonstrate mobile TV using MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service), following a successful MBMS trial conducted in 2006. Ericsson plans commercial rollout of MBMS services in 2008.

I'm off to Barcelona tonight, and will do my best to continue and provide mobile TV coverage from the show itself.