Study: Digital mobile TV could become a $9.1 billion industry

A National Association of Broadcasters study contends that mobile digital television has the potential to become a multi-billion-dollar annual industry in America...but only if the standardization process is resolved by February 2009.

Each month the establishment of a standard is delayed, the study asserts, could cost broadcasters $50 million in revenue, and over $200 million in value to mobile digital broadcasting overall. The $9.1 B incremental market value in the study comes from the $2 billion in advertising revenue adjusted by $1.1 billion which would be accrued by participating broadcasters.

Though mobile digital television in the United States is available through several cellular carriers, there is no regulatory body mandating which standard should be upheld. The EU's mobile broadcast standard is DVB-H, thanks in large part to the concerted -- and oftentimes personal -- efforts of Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information, Society and the Media. During a discussion at last month's Consumer Electronics Show, US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy David A. Gross explained that the standards are consumer and technology driven, not governmentally.

Brandon Burgess, Chairman of the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), an alliance of over 800 commercial and public broadcasters, said in a statement that any delay beyond February 2009 would cause "irreparable harm" to the mobile broadcast business.

The group states that current mobile TV services offered over cellular networks are of poor quality and are too expensive. Mobile digital video by broadcasters, it claims, is higher quality and cheaper by design. The Open Mobile Video Coalition is currently agnostic in regards to broadcasting technologies, but David A. Glenn of the OMVC told BetaNews, "We are scheduled to begin testing of all the proponents who are able to deliver equipment for testing in two weeks."

Getting a standard established in under one year will require a forceful push from someone, and perhaps the OMVC, with its numerous members, is the group to help speed the process along before mobile digital broadcasting starts to lose profitability.