Never mind small local trials of DVB-H mobile TV, never mind twiddling with cell towers, the Americans just love doing things bigger than the rest of us. Yesterday they launched a huge satellite dedicated to covering the whole of the USA with DVB-SH signals, reports PhoneMag. This is a satellite-friendly (higher frequency), extended version of DVB-H, the new Euro and (arguably) worldwide mobile TV standard. See also DVB-SH at Wikipedia. So look for DVB-SH compatibility in the next generation of smartphones.
Now, why can't we have a huge European satellite to serve the same purpose?
Read on in the full article.
You'd probably have severe legal problems with a European satellite, as the market is so splintered. America is one country, but Europe is dozens of countries, and the rights to certain programmes and channels belong to different people in different countries.
Good point krisse, but in a sense the questions you and Steve raise about this are moot. Big media will continue layering restriction after restriction on to it's content - distribution (one country rather than another), timing (one country before another), licenses, formats, pricing, etc, etc, etc.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, people will get on, en masse, with accessing that content "however and whenever they damn well choose". They will continue to download it from filesharing networks, from official broadcaster websites, from wherever, and continue to move it onto whatever devices they like, and transcode it for the device they want. There is no future but one where big media accepts consumer desire to have content where, when and how they want it. Any and all restrictions will be removed, and indeed have been on the whole. This is NOT a clarion call for mass piracy, but rather I am pointing out the ongoing gross misunderstanding by big media of technology and the internet and filesharing etc. DRM is dying, increasing numbers of people download TV off the internet to watch when THEY want, on the device THEY want, in the format THEY want - and these people have paid their TV licenses incidentally (and I strongly suspect would not be averse to paying a small sum per programme, and/or having ads). Whether the strict letter of the law decides one day to catch up with reality is up to the law. (As a side note, a TV license in the UK is ONLY required if watching a live TV broadcast that originates in the UK - if it's not live, or not from the UK, no license required). iTunes is a good model, aside from the format/player restrictions and any pricing concerns.
What I'm saying is - whatever distribution mechanism big media decides is flavour of the month, it will only succeed if it is cheaper, better and more flexible than direct over the air or sideloading of content using other methods - i.e. methods that remove restrictions. Otherwise filesharing and restriction removal will continue to grow enormously as it has been doing.
Alex
phonething.com
ajck, I do agree that the business models need to change. You may want to take a look at my "Comes With Music" article on the front page as it discusses how this new idea tries to merge the flexibility and choice of piracy with the legitimate music industry.
However, DVB-H and DVB-SH do provide something different which the user cannot themselves: broadcast rather than narrowcast.
If you receive a television signal passively it uses much less battery life than an internet connection, and it also means you can receive new content without having to be near your PC.
Whether that matters to people is unknown, television broadcasts to ordinary mobile phones is a very new area, and it could be that no one will be interested. However, there's definitely a unique selling point in this technology which cannot be replicated by consumers unofficially.
I know that I have been anxiously awaiting broadcast TV capability on the go for some time now. I've come very close in the past week to buying one of those ATSC to NTSC converter tuners to hook into my minivan's rear entertainment system so folks in the rear seats can watch television while we are out and about or traveling. DVDs are nice and all, but there's certainly something to be said for watching new content. If I can get PBSKids in the car, it won't be the same Thomas the Tank Engine or Mickey Mouse Club House DVD over and over and over and over and over.....
And I won't have to keep purchasing new DVDs for my child either.
The irony is that mobile TV has been around for about 30 years, there were pocket TVs which received ordinary analogue transmissions.
They never really took off, perhaps because mobile TV wasn't important enough to warrant carrying a device with you. But if mobile TV is built into handsets that people have with them anyway...