EU seeks to dominate mobile video with single standard

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission wants to boost Europe's position in the fast-emerging market for mobile television technology by pushing for a single European standard, an EU official said Monday.

The European Union's executive arm is to propose on Wednesday that DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds, technology be included on its list of standards in order to encourage its use across Europe.

If DVB-H, which allows videos to be played over mobile telephones, is slow in being taken up, the Commission could make it the sole standard allowed to be used in Europe in 2008.

The Commission hopes that by imposing a single standard Europe will get an edge in the new technology like it did when the GSM standard emerged at the end of the 1980s.

Which standard is taken up could have huge consequences for the industry with the market for mobile TV estimated to be worth 20 billion euros (28 billion dollars) by 2011 and reaching 500 million viewers worldwide, according to the Commission.

However, Europe will have some catching up to do if its going to be a leader in the technology because such mobile television services have been available in the United States from 2003 and from 2005 in South Korea.

In Europe, such services are only available in Finland, France, Germany and Italy.

So far the technology has had the most success in South Korea where the market penetration rate reaches 10 percent, compared with only one percent in Italy, where it is most developed in Europe.

Currently, there are so far three main mobile television standards.

In addition to DVB-H, US technology company Qualcomm has developed a standard known as MediaFLO and South Korean companies have come up with one called DMB.