Eden Zoller, analyst at Ovum and moderator for the live TV in your pocket panel discussion, says it is interesting to see that MIPTV and MILIA are now showcased at the same time.

"Mobile and fixed convergence in general was a very strong theme throughout the event and there was some debate in terms of whether mobile TV and IP TV are coming together,” says Zoller. “It is a bit early to see any evidence of that yet, however, it is something that some operators are looking at, such as AT&T in the US and StarHub in Singapore."

Zoller says that a strong theme that came out at the event was that although Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) has gained a lot of support in Europe, it is unlikely to be the only mobile broadcast solution implemented. This is mainly because of the uncertainty over the licensing and availability of spectrum for DVB-H, at least in the UHS band – the preferred band for the technology. It is a fairly young technology that has been evolved from traditional digital broadcast, which requires an additional TV receiver in the phone.

Zoller says: "Having a fragmented environment in terms of technology solutions and different bands is not ideal. It raises issues in terms of roaming agreements and cost of deployment, not only for networks but also for devices."

In certain markets, operators are starting to experiment with alternative IP data cast solutions; for example, in Germany and the UK we see operators experimenting with DAB. One operator in France is adopting a technology agnostic stance and is looking at DVB-H, T-DMB and satellite solutions.

In South Korea, operators have launched commercial mobile broadcast services based on  T-DMB and S-DMB.  The latter is the more mature service having launched in May 2005 – T-DMB only launched in December. The South Korean mobile broadcast service company Tu Media’s S-DMB service is gaining momentum after a slow start and subscriber numbers now stand at around 500,000. Usage is also showing good growth at an average of 55 minutes a day per user, 41 minutes taken by video services and the balance by audio (i.e. radio).

Another thing that came up at the panel discussion was how much can be done over 3G in terms of improving the experience of mobile TV, for example with HSDPA.

The existing cellular solution is a unicast version, where each user gets a dedicated 3G-channel that is only allocated to them while they are watching their TV program. To give operators efficient use of the restricted number of cellular channels, there is also a broadcast version, Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS), through which all viewers watching the same TV program share the same cellular channel.

Orange in France is a good example of an operator that has been very successful with mobile TV over 3G. It offers 54 TV channels. The company’s latest report shows very positive user figures for mobile TV, with an average usage per month of about 37 minutes per subscriber. And at least 50 percent of the customers are 3G users.

Another big issue was the business model for mobile TV, especially for mobile broadcast services. Zoller notes that the introduction of a new network – the mobile broadcast network, essentially creates a new role in the value chain – that of the mobile broadcast service provider. That role includes managing the customer relationship, defining the service mix such as pricing and packaging; managing the service platform, third party relationships and revenue settlement.

"What is not clear at this point is who will be the mobile broadcast service provider,” Zoller says. "It could be a mobile operator, broadcaster or a consortium containing both. Examples of operators aiming to occupy the central role include Orange France and 3 in Italy – 3 have even acquired a broadcaster in this market.  An alternative model that could be attractive is a wholesale proposition of the type being offered by BT Movio in the UK and MediaFLO in the US."

Hendrik Bergstén