Different Strokes For Different Folks: Facing
The Technological Challenges Of Mobile TV: Part 2
by Martyn Green
The world's cellular phone makers, telecoms companies, television broadcast companies and content makers are eagerly eyeing an emerging market: video signals delivered to our mobile phones. As we will effectively be able to carry around portable TV receivers in our pockets and handbags, there could soon be virtually wall-to-wall television.
But there is some evidence that the additional costs involved may be dampening users' interest.
For a start, the take-up of 3G phones has not been that great (only a small percentage of mobile phones are 3G), and those that already have them will need to purchase a new one if they want to be able to view broadcast television, for which some TV companies are gearing up to provide content.
Initially mobile phone users will be offered content derived from existing television shows, although it will not be long before programs specially made for mobiles are being offered. These are likely be short snips, like music videos and episodes of soaps -- the sort of thing commuters can watch while waiting for the train, or sitting on top of a bus on the way to work, or home.
And they are likely to be popular -- by 2009, mobile phone companies are seen as likely to have about 50 million customers using mobile TV services, generating revenues as high as USD $7 billion. Other research suggests that just a year later, 2010, that figure will have grown to a global total of 65 million customers.
However, there are issues that may cool the initial enthusiasm for mobile TV services. There are, for instance, several different systems, with names like DVB-H, DMB-T and T-DMB. The original DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld, looked to be the favorite -- till China came up with a modification of the technology used in Digital Multimedia Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DMB- T), and South Korea came out with its own slightly different version, T-DMB.
DVB-H uses TDM which allows up to eight hours of TV to be watched on one battery charge. Power is saved by having only the information needed for the channel being watched sent to the phone. But DVB-H is in competition with the DMB standard (not to be confused with the Multi-Media Home Platform standard.)
Both the Japanese and South Koreans (along with Ericsson of Sweden), back DMB because they say the technology drains batteries even less, and it can handle more frames a second.
In Japan it is already said to be difficult to purchase a mobile phone which doesn't have video capabilities. And, whether it is due to the initial novelty or not, mobile TV is being viewed in a variety of situations. Research in Europe (Finland, Sweden, France and Germany) late last year indicated that 36% of the users involved in a trial watched mobile TV during lunch breaks, 18% watched while commuting to work, and 12% while queuing or waiting for friends. Surprisingly, despite almost certainly having a much larger TV in the house, 10% actually opted to watch TV on a mobile phone at home.
For the UK's six month trial by operator 02, Nokia's 7710 widescreen multimedia smartphone was used. This was a full-scale trial with 16 channels available, including BBC One and Two, ITV channels 1 and 2, and the independent Channel Four. (Nokia plans to release its N92 model, the first DVB-H enabled handset designed to look like a portable TV, later this year.) Currently in the UK, at least one operator is experimenting with user-generated content -- for instance, customers to the TV service of Operator 3 can upload their own programs and even make some money from them -- about two US cents for every download.
But with both 3G and DVB-H vying to be the technology of choice to provide video clips and short TV programs to mobile viewers, which system is likely to become most popular -- at least in Europe?
Telecoms operator 3G services offer a one-to-one delivery system, whereas DVB-H works as a one-to-many system. In January, when Sky TV launched a broadband film download service, it also announced a complementary service of Sky by Mobile, to provide news and sports to its customers' mobile phones. Vodafone already had a similar service up and running for customers of its 3G network.
In countries like the UK, it is said that the technology for DVB-H looks like becoming the favorite, as it will outshine the TV services being launched for 3G networks. The main point being that, unlike streaming video signals with 3G (which can provide 2 Mbit/s of data), DVB-H (which allows up to 3 Mbit/s) does not eat up bandwidth.
On the other hand, in Asia at least, two other, slightly different, standards are also emerging -- mainland China's DMB-T, and South Korea's T-DMB -- Digital Multimedia Broadcasting with the T standing for Terrestrial.
Digital multimedia broadcasting is based on the European Eureka 147 Digital Audio Broadcast or DAB system, which is widely used in the UK and other European countries, where it is gaining considerable popularity as a digital radio format.
Like DMB, the DVB-H system uses COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) although with a bandwidth of either 6 MHz, 7 MHz, or 8 MHz. Additionally it uses a range of different types of modulation from QPSK up to 64QAM, which enables it to have a very high data rate. Furthermore, as DVB-H can go up to 3 Mbit/s, since mobile screens are so small, this means each broadcaster could have up to ten channels.
However, DVB-H is said to be more susceptible to signal variations and synchronization problems. It also requires higher powered transmitters than those used for DMB. DVB-H is based upon the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial) standard used for digital television transmissions within the UK and other countries.
The DMB standard is well suited to the transmission of content to handheld devices. By effectively using a TDM delivery method, it inherently includes time slicing. In this way one part of the receiver is only switched on when it is required, thus saving battery power.
China's Tsinghua University developed the intellectual property for its version of DMB-T (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting -- Terrestrial) key technology, and this may end up being chosen as China's national standard. There, and in many other countries, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, programming is paid for by advertising, and the potential audience is measured in the hundreds of millions.
In most countries, just having the right kind of mobile phone is enough to allow you to watch TV on it. But having a mobile phone that can receive TV signals may not be quite so simple for mobile customers in Britain. Here, if users have not already paid for a license to view TV in their home, they will be required to purchase one, just to watch on their mobiles. (If they have a receiver in their room, even university students living in dormitories need a license, in addition to the one issued for their parents' home.)
Britain's TV Licensing Authority maintains that particularly since mobile phone users don't even need to sign up with a service provider to receive TV signals into a cellular phone, if they don't already have one, those intending to watch programs on their mobile must purchase a TV license (which funds the BBC), costing GBP126.50 (about USD250) a year. Those that overlook this crucial matter face a fine of up to GBP1000.
In fact, a TV Licensing Authority spokesman points out that programs viewed on ANY device at the same time as they are broadcast to standard television sets are governed by the UK's TV licensing laws. So those who use, for instance, a computer to watch TV broadcasts also need to purchase a license.
Since it already gathers data from computer retailers it is understood that TV Licensing is now in touch with mobile phone retailers and service providers to ensure that mobile phone users have a TV license, if required.
Whatever is the true legal situation, the mobile viewer won't get away with surreptitious viewing: the TV Licensing Authority has a database of some 28 million addresses which it uses to match with other data to identify those addresses where there is no record of a license. A TV Licensing spokesman revealed, "We have already caught people watching TV programs on their computers."
If the authorities remain adamant in their ruling with reference to watching TV on mobile phones, one can imagine it could lead to a nightmare scenario: TV Licensing detector vans having to go chasing after all the mobile phone TV viewers, as they crisscross the cities' streets, or tear down the motorways of Britain. This could well make a mockery of the idea. Could THIS, as I suggest below, spell the death knell of TV licenses in Britain? Otherwise, since policing it with HIGHLY mobile viewers would be a nightmare, it seems that the idea may have to be dropped.
But then again, if you're viewing your mobile TV while sitting on a bus, while belting along a motorway out of London -- how are they going to catch you?
It would seem that there is a slight lack of internal logic to the UK television licensing situation, as laid out by the TV Licensing Authority website, "If you only use a TV set powered by its own internal batteries, you do NOT need a separate TV License."
And certainly a mobile phone IS powered by its internal batteries… But then it gets even more complicated, because the website states very clearly, "If you have a... mobile home... and it has a TV which is used at the same time as a TV set is being used in your main licensed home -- you'll need a separate license… However, if the TV... is never in use at the same time as your TV at your main home, you don't need a separate license."
From this it can be seen that, for instance, if you are a single person, with your own house, meaning you cannot possibly be watching TV at home and outside on your mobile at the same time, as it is a physical impossibility to be two places at the same time, you don't need a separate license, because you are never going to be watching both at the same time. A second license is therefore obviously not needed.
But then, what if your friend comes around, and you both watch TV, then you go out, while the friend continues to watch, and, while you are out, you also watch something on your mobile? Is that when the TV Licensing tracker vans all suddenly converge on the miscreant -- because he now needs to have another license?? (This situation is reminiscent of "Pete & Dud" [British comedians Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore] at the art gallery -- which ends up with them going their separate ways… If you've ever seen the sketch, you'll see the parallel…)
Then, according to their website, again, "If you watch TV programs in a second home which is a touring caravan or vehicle, or a boat, you do not need a separate TV License; you will be covered by the TV License for your main residence."
They do not mention trains, or buses -- but it would seem to be ridiculous to try to maintain that these are fundamentally different -- they are all means of transport, and that is precisely where mobile phones are most useful (in their traditional capacity).
At another web page the TV Licensing Authority has the dialogue, "Aren't I covered by my parents' license while I'm away?" Answer from the TV Licensing Authority, "Not unless your TV is powered by internal batteries, such as a pocket-sized TV."
As Alice would say, "Curiouser and curiouser…"
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