Digital TV broadcasts to mobile arrive to Europe on 3 in Italy

Nine months after the first digital TV broadcasts to mobile phones started in Korea, now Three/Hutchison the 3G mobile operator in Italy has started the full broadcasts on the DVB-H technology. The story was reported by our friends at the3GPortal on Friday.

Initially Three/Hutchison do not offer the full channel selection, and have only 500 of the new handsets (which include the "set-top box" digital tuner built into the 3G mobile phone) to get the first customers viewing. But Hutchison promises to have all major Italian broadcast channels on by June, and aim to sign up a million 3G TV viewers by end of this year.

For those who are now remarkably confused (didn't we have TV viewing on our 3G phones already) - this is a new technology and new type of viewing. Previously on mobile phones you could either watch video clips (download a clip, then watch it) or select a "streaming service" - which would at times cut out and be fuzzy etc. But now following the concept from Korea, the Italian mobile operator has launched handsets which have full 3G telecoms and data capacity - AND a separate digital tuner. The TV signals will be broadcast over the airwaves. This allows a much better - and more cost-effective TV viewing experience on the mobile phone (or other viewing device, such as the flat panel viewer on a backseat of an automobile etc). Of course it means that anyone offering this type of service also needs to own a TV broadcasting license, as Three/Hutchison does in Italy.

Again another variant on the "Y of Convergence" that Alan and I talk about, of how telecoms, the internet and media are merging.

Comments

[Dr. Zoiberg]

I think this is just a way to sell more mobiles: they will launch an offer to let people watch the world soccer matches, which have a huge number of followers in Italy. Then all these Three customers will have tv on those tiny screens, but will suffer for poor coverage by the network (which is not yet on par with Telecom Italia and Vodafone).
What I'd really like to see from one of the big mobile operators is a flat rate, fast and reliable mobile data transmission service.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Dr Zoiberg

Thanks for visiting our blogsite and for posting the comment.

I don't doubt at all, that TIM and Vodafone in Italy have better coverage on their cellular telecoms networks (and very likely also specifically on 3G cellular networks, which Three/Hutchison Italy operates).

But the new mobile TV broadcast system is NOT using the cellular networks. It is more closely a relative of the digital TV broadcast systems and technology, but optimized for the small screens.

To broadcast using this new DVB-H technology, any provider has to acquire a TV broadcast license, which Three/Hutchison Italy has done. The image on the small screen (in trials that I have observed) is significantly better than the "streamed" video images on 3G phones so far. So in this case, I do believe that viewers on the new service by Three/Hutchison Italy will be "significantly better" than viewing experiences on the existing mobile telecoms networks.

But time will tell. And for us, definitely, time will tell rather SOON ha-ha...

Also, I do agree with you, that a strongly driving force here with this innovation is the handset manufacturing community. The SIA - Semiconductor Industry Association - reported just last week that mobile phones worldwide have now a replacement cycle down to 18 months. This is totally in the interests of every Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, SonyEricsson, LG, Ben-Q/Siemens, etc. The shorter the replacement cycle, the more these manufacturers can ship mobile phones every year. Its already at a rate of 800 million units per year.

So yes, I do agree that these technical feature additions to mobile phones - TV right now - are pushed more by mobile phone makers than by any real "demand" by consumers.

Thanks for writing.

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Dr. Zoiberg]

Hi Tomi,
I know that DVB-H technology doesn't use cellular networks, but do people really want a portable tv with a really small screen, no asyncronous capability (i.e. podcasts), and even a bad mobile because of the messy Three network?
I really doubt it!
I can see no point in making standard tv available on mobiles.
Providers should instead give us better, faster networks and maybe more memory on our phones - that would be a true improvement.

Do we still believe in top-bottom content delivery? Do we still need broadcasting licenses?

When I said "this is just a way to sell more mobiles", I should have said instead "a way for Three to get more people onto their bad network".
I'm looking forward to reading your book.

[Tomi T Ahonen]

Hi Dr Zoiberg

Great to have you back, and thanks for the clarification. Certainly I can agree with the sentiment - and I don't mean to be disparaging to Three/Italy - with your funny comment of "a way to get more people onto their bad network."

Now, if you asked me six months ago what I thought of TV (broadcast content) on the tiny screen, I would have been quite sceptical of it. In my many workshops, seminars and keynotes at the various mobile-TV conferences in Europe and Asia, I would stress that the big video opportunity in mobile was with TV-related content, not TV broadcast content. Mentioning such early examples as SMS-to-TV chat, TV-branded MMS whether from the TV show to viewer, or viewer clips to TV, or the backstage passes MTV has recently introduced etc.

But then on December 1, 2005, I changed my mind. That was when I was in South Korea at their big telecoms-convergence event delivering my keynote, and I happened to hear a presentation about Korean mobile TV adoption by the mobile TV technology company OnTimeTek. The world's first digital TV broadcaster to mobile (using the S-DMB standard), Tu Media, had achieved 300,000 paying subscribers in less than half a year - its obviously way more by now. But that number totally shook me.

You have to keep in mind, that Korea has a population of less than the UK - 50 million (UK has about 60). South Koreans while wealthy for Asians, are much less wealthy per capita as their Western European brothers and sisters. And most critically considering a new technology gadget, in South Korea there are no handset subsidies. Customer pay full commercial undiscounted prices for their mobile phone handsets. And these DMB TV + 3G mobile phones were all the most expensive phones in gadget-mad Korea, with prices from 800 USD to 1200 USD.

Note for contrast, when Three Hutchison launched in the UK, in its first YEAR they managed 380,000 subscribers. This with all but free handsets. And massively discounted voice calls and text messages.

In South Korea, DMB handset phones sold 300,000 units on SK Telecom (the mobile operator) in less than six months, where DMB broadcast TV viewing was an ADDITIONAL monthly fee of 12 dollars. Not only full price payment for the most expensive handsets ever, but a BIG hike in the monthly phone bill, to view this content.

Yet they managed more phones - and paying subscribers - than Hutchison giving 3G phones for free in the UK.

This is what forced me to re-think. Then I took a very close look at the results from the Berlin, Helsinki and Oxford trials - all reporting INCREDIBLY strong desire by users.

Dr Zoiberg - I would put it to you, that for most mass market customers, if they are asked beforehand, do they want this, they are ambivalent. BUT when they SEE the images of their favourite TV shows, how SHARP they are - and then recognize that with their next phone upgrade, they could have DIGITAL TV broadcasts in their pocket for anytime use, it will take off.

Oh, and TV viewing? its not nearly as much with commuting as expected. It is at home, in bed, or the second (digital) TV set when the family's main TV is used for other viewing, etc.

I changed my mind. Now I am truly a believer. Oh, and it did help to see the vivid pictures myself, on those remarkably sharp screens....

But we'll see (soon enough). Lets see, Japan was second to go commercial and now Italy is third. Lets see if the Korean pattern holds.

Ha-ha, and I agree with the sentiment, there is a lot of that "lets get those customers to our network, whatever the gimmick" ha-ha...

Tomi Ahonen :-)

[Amitabh Kumar]

It is now almost a year since the comment was posted and I thought it is an appropriate time to comment albeit with some hindsight.

Firstly Mobile TV has surged ahead in Asia and Europe which have emeraged as the two growth centres. It seems to be still finding its feet in the US, at least in the broadcast versions of DVB-H or MediaFLO.

In the meantime,there have been significant developments. The availability of 1GB,4GB memories in handsets or SD cards has raised their capabilities manifold to store live video and audio.This means more of posts on communities or personal sites, Youtube are possible.

The iPhone has been launched and is likely to keep the attention of the US glued to this device in comparison to other types of smartphones. A new industry is likely to spring to develop applications which can run on this. Unfortunately while iPhone can be used to connect to and stream from the Youtube, any additional capabilities seem to be missing in terms of streaming live video from the likes of MobiTV. It also does not support any of the broadcast versions of Mobile TV such as DVB-H,DMB or MediaFLO.

It will be interesting to see how the hanset industry responds to these challanges and spring forth the technologies of mobile TV.

Amitabh Kumar