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.

Verizon and Sprint MediaFLO Services Powered by Samsung Handsets

Engadget has spotted two Samsung handsets which will be used in commercial MediaFLO mobile TV services in the US. The Samsung U620 will be used for Verizon's VCAST mobile TV service, while the Samsung M250 is already powering Sprint's trial of the competing VUE mobile TV service in Kansas City and Las Vegas.

DVB-H Reception Poor in Germany, Good in Italy

In two articles published by EETimes, the quality of DVB-H broadcasts from the world cup were evaluated. The first article discusses the personal experience of the reporter using an HTC PDA with a DVB-H SD receiver card powered by Philips Semiconductor. The reporter describes a disappointing user experience which includes jerky pictures, dropped frames and frozen images when trying to watch the T-Systems DVB-H trial broadcast in the Berlin world cup stadium. Only towards the end of the article we discover what is probably the real reason for this poor performance: "Admittedly, the handset and DVB-H receiver/demodulation chip I used weren't among the official devices currently being used in the German DVB-H trials". The importance of interoperability testing...

The second article provides a second-hand report of DVB-H reception in Europe's first commercial DVB-H service launched by 3 in Italy. The tests, performed by French DVB-H receiver vendor DibCom using the LG U900 and Samsung P910 handsets, found excellent signal reception around Rome and Milan, even while driving at 160 Kilometers per hour. However, the service suffers from a 15-second initialization time, and a 6-second channel switch time, which DibCom executives refer to as "acceptable"...

BBC and ITV Launch Mobile TV Trial in the UK

tThe Observer posted an exclusive report today claiming that BBC and ITV will join forces in a six month mobile broadcast TV trial which will be held in the UK, based on DAB technology. The observer claims that the companies will announce the trial tomorrow, in conjunction with several partners including Samsung, LG, MTV and Cartoon Network. The report does not state whether the trial is based on the T-DMB technology, which is used in MFD's commercial mobile TV service in Germany, or DAB-IP technology, which was used in the trial held earlier this year in the UK by BT Movio and Virgin Mobile.

Germany Launches Two Mobile TV Networks

Days before the FIFA World Cup, Germany has launched two separate mobile broadcast TV networks that will offer content from the games as well as other TV and radio channels.

The first service is based on T-DMB technology, and was launched by mobile operator Debitel and broadcast service provider MFD. The service will use the Samsung SGH-P900 and LG-V9000 handsets, and will be available initially in 5 German cities: Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Later this month, the service will spread to more cities including Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg and Hanover. At launch, 4 TV channels will be available: ZDF, MTV, N24 and a channel produced by PRO7. The monthly fee which Debitel plans to charge for this service is 9.95 Euros.

The second service, still in a trial stage, is based on DVB-H technology, and was launched by Germany's four major mobile operators: T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and E-Plus. The trial is being held in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Hanover, and will continue until the end of August. The content for the trial includes two national TV channels, ARD and ZDF, and 16 radio channels.

First MediaFlo Trial in Europe

UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB announced yesterday that it plans to evaluate Qulacomm's MediaFlo mobile TV technology in a trial that will take place later this year in the UK. The trial will be conducted in the Cambridge area using the UHF spectrum, and will feature 10 TV channels which will be received by about 100 form-factor mobile handsets supplied by Qualcomm.

Nokia, Canal+ and SFR Publish Results of Paris DVB-H Trial

The results of a DVB-H trial held in Paris since last September were published by Nokia this week. The trial showed that 73% of users were satisfied with the service, and 68% were willing to subscribe to the service for 7 Euros a month. Average usage was 20 minutes per day, mainly at home but also when traveling and at work. News, music, entertainment and sports were the most popular content types viewed in this trial.

Nokia and Telefonica Publish Results of Spanish DVB-H Trial

The results of a DVB-H trial held in Barcelona and Madrid last September were published today by Nokia, Telefónica Móviles and Abertis Telecom. The trial showed that 75% of users are willing to recommend the service to their friends, but only 55% of users are willing to pay for the service, up to 5 Euros per month. These are figures are quite disappointing, compared to the T-DMB trial by BT and Virgin which showed that most users were willing to pay up to £5 (7.3 Euros) a month for the service, and the DVB-H trial in Helsinki which showed users were willing to pay up to 10 Euros per month for the service.

Interactive Mobile TV Doubles the Average Viewing Time

In a press release published by Ericsson yesterday, the company disclosed the results of a 9 week trial with NRK in Norway using interactive mobile TV over the cellular network. The trial showed that the average viewing time of interactive mobile TV users was 5 minutes per session, twice as much as regular mobile TV users. Interactivity in the trial included selecting the next music video to be shown, and chatting with a TV host and with other viewers.

Cingular Evaluating DVB-H

Cingular, the leading wireless carrier in the US, started to evaluate DVB-H products, which may be a sign that the company is contemplating launching a mobile TV service based on this standard in the future. In an interview published in the Red Herring yesterday, DiBCom Chairman Marco Landi said that Cingular is evaluating DiBCom's DVB-H chips in customer products, starting from PDAs and moving later to laptops and cellphones.

T-DMB Trial in India

Following the announcement regarding the launch of T-DMB services in China which was covered in a previous post, India now plans to hold a trial of T-DMB technology in Mumbai this month. The trial is conducted in collaboration with the Korean Information and Communication Ministry, which is pushing global adoption of T-DMB technology.

China to Launch T-DMB Mobile TV Service

According to an article in Variety.com, China plans to launch a mobile TV service based on T-DMB technology in April. This follows the announcement from Samsung earlier this month that it will ship 200,000 T-DMB phones to China.

This is the first commercial launch of T-DMB services outside of Korea, although a T-DMB trial has been held in the UK, and a big trial is planned in Germany this June in time for the FIFA World Cup.