Broadcasters: Heed Spectrum, Investment in DVB-H Mandate
GENEVA -- A European Commission decision to back DVB-H as the standard for mobile TV (CD July 19 p10) has not ended debate. Public broadcasters and companies opposing a European Commission mandate for DVB-H say that would hobble investment and delay mobile TV adoption. The European Broadcasting Union urged the EC to follow its recommended principle of technological neutrality rather than require a solution, the EBU said in response to the EC decision to recommend DVB-H en route to a possible mandate.
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Public broadcasters want businesses to be free to pick any standard, the Union said. “Technology alone will not decide the future of Mobile TV,” President Fritz Pleitgen said. The EC called DVB-H the main contender for mobile TV, citing 15 DVB-H trials in Europe and 2 commercial launches. But 13 European nations have tried digital multimedia (DMB) broadcasting, based on digital audio broadcasting technology. The U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Norway, Austria and Switzerland have adopted DMB for mobile TV, with Germany alone in launching DMB commercially. More than 100 DAB-DMB systems are in place worldwide, said John Hall, CEO of RadioScope. “The blanket imposition of the DVB-H standard would… stunt investment in the sector,” said Anthony Sethill, CEO of Frontier Silicon.
Officials in the U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark and Norway believe that requiring only DVB-H risks isolating Europe from Asian markets using DMB for mobile TV, said WorldDAB, which promotes DMB. Italian public broadcaster RAI International said two weeks ago that it chose DMB instead of DVB-H for mobile TV services, WorldDAB said.
“The Commission wants to put in place a light touch regulatory approach favoring investment, innovation and competition in this emerging market,” the EC website said. “It will organize an exchange of best practice and provide guidance for a coherent framework for mobile TV authorisation regimes,” press materials said.
Spectrum issues are key to deploying mobile TV technologies, officials said. The EC started opening L-band (1452-1492 MHz) to mobile TV services as a fallback solution, an EC release said. But L-band is essential to deploying DAB and DMB in Europe, WorldDAB said. Using it as a fallback for DVB-H would “would seriously damage the very interoperability the EU is keen to promote,” perhaps undermining DAB free-to- air audio services and interfering with rollout in many lands, WorldDAB said. Limiting mobile TV broadcasts to DVB-H will severely hamper its uptake, Sethill said.
Agreements by European countries say L-band can be used for DMB without restriction starting this year, said Finn Sondergaard Pedersen, CEO of Broadcast Service in Denmark. “DVB-H technology can not be generally rolled out in Europe until year 2012 or later,” he said. The 2006 ITU Regional Radio Conference coordinated transition of frequencies needed for DVB-H to digital starting in 2012, he said.
The rate and intensity of technological advances preclude adoption of any one standard for mobile broadcasting, the broadcasters’ group said. Too many technologies are being tested and embraced for Europe to have only one solution, an official said. Each technology has benefits and drawbacks, an official said. DMB may work better on handheld devices at high speeds, such as on a train or car, he said. DVB-H may work better in densely populated areas, an official said.