In-Stat: World Cup Pushing Mobile TV Broadcasting

Michelle Abraham at In-Stat writes in a recent alert that many mobile carriers are recognizing that using the "cellular network to deliver popular content that millions want to watch at the same time requires much greater bandwidth than is currently available. They are turning to mobile TV broadcast networks, which have a much lower cost per bit for video delivery, to deliver linear TV programming to mobile subscribers."

She points out "there are four standards being used for mobile TV broadcasting: DVB-H, DMB, ISDB-T, and MediaFLO. ISDB-T is currently only used in Japan and services are on the air. DMB-based services are on the air now in Asia and will be launched in Europe later in 2006. DVB-H based services are launching this month in Europe, and later in 2006, in North America. Also in late 2006, MediaFLO-based services will be launched in North America."

In-Stat forecast "with expected deployments in 2006, mobile TV broadcasting subscribers will grow from 397,000 at the end of 2005 to 3.4 million in 2006." By the end of 2010, In-Stat predicts "mobile TV broadcast subscribers to reach 102 million. Free-To-Air (FTA) mobile TV broadcasts will add millions more viewers."