Mobile TV: Nokia gives us a glimpse

Mobile phone giant Nokia is revealing details of its television technology to help jump start the young mobile TV industry.

Nokia has unveiled its version of a standardised method for delivering broadcast digital TV to handsets in the US, Europe and Asia. The standard, DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld, competes with a host of other similar technologies, including Qualcomm's new MediaFlo. Companies supporting DVB-H say it's less expensive and allows a quicker product turnaround.

Nokia's vice president Richard Sharp said: "We are emphasising our commitment to open standards and interoperability as a means to enable positive market development."

Aside from Nokia, DVB-H supporters include UK mobile operator O2; multicast operator Crown Castle Mobile Media, which plans to build a mobile TV network; mobile phone infrastructure-equipment provider UDcast; and a number of chip makers including Texas Instruments and Intel.

Nokia's move supports the wireless industry's view that there is a sizable market for mobile-TV fare, including movies, news clips and standard programming typically found on living room TVs. If the market for it is indeed robust, such a service could generate significant new revenue streams for wireless operators.

But so far, Verizon Wireless in the US and other top-tier operators offering TV services are finding them a hard sell, according to research group Informa. This year, Verizon only expects to sell about 130,000 video handsets, suggesting the worldwide market for them is commensurately small.

Sectors harbouring high hopes for the mobile-TV market do so because of television's dominance as an entertainment form and the ubiquity of mobile phones. Informa concluded in a recent study that 125 million people - about five percent of all mobile phone owners - will be watching TV on their handsets by 2010.

Ben Charny writes for CNET News.com