Show Highlights

• Over 700 pre-registered for the show
• Networking party sponsored by Irdeto on the evening of the first day at Sugar Reef bar, London.
  
• Joint networking area and exhibition with the Digital Radio Show capitalises on the cross over between radio and mobile industries
• Key Mobile Operators speaking - companies include 02, Vodafone, Hutchinson Whampoa, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile and Telecom Italia, Orange
• FREE Exhibition-only passes available
• Industry networking party

Registration hotline +44 (0)117 3116 222

To register now please click HERE

Mobile TV is already a reality worldwide. In the US, Sprint cell phone customers have been accessing live broadcast TV since late 2003 and Vodafone live! 3G customers in Germany were able to watch the Tour De France live on Eurosport last summer. TU Media Corp./SK Telecom customers in South Korea have been able to watch seven channels of live Pay TV, delivered via satellite, since May 2005 and a free-to-air terrestrial mobile TV service went live in Seoul late last year. Orange UK and ‘3’ both introduced live television over their 3G networks in the UK during 2005.

Mobile TV is starting to prove itself in the field but even when all current commercial services are considered – and this is not an exhaustive list - it remains a fledgling industry that, despite the marketing buzz and big-name backers, still has the potential to fail. What is generating so much excitement, however, is the possibility of success, boosted by the knowledge that mobile TV subscriptions represent new money for the content, broadcast and mobile industries, with no obvious cannibalisation of existing Pay TV revenues or cellular income. If mobile TV does prove a hit with consumers, then we could be witnessing the birth of a multi-billion dollar worldwide industry.

There are mobile TV sceptics, of course. Several analysts and reports have cast doubt on whether consumers are really interested in watching TV on the very small screen. But they are currently being drowned out by the noise of two great industries – mobile telecoms and television – rushing to test delivery and reception technologies, find the right content, establish technology/business partnerships and create viable business models.

As an immature industry, there are currently more questions than answers surrounding the likely evolution of mobile TV and the Mobile TV World Forum aims to provide the discussion forum, networking opportunities and exhibition that this new digital TV platform needs. It will address key issues surrounding consumer attitudes and behaviour towards video on mobiles, service propositions and content offerings, business models and value chains, transmission technologies and standards, content production, interactivity, advertising, regulation and much more. Drawing on experience from existing commercial mobile TV services and the many technical and commercial trials worldwide, the forum will aim to provide a clearer idea of the impact this new media will have.

2006 will be a landmark year in the development of mobile TV, with the first commercial broadcast overlay networks outside Korea set to deliver live TV to mobile devices. Mobile TV service providers in the US will, for the first time, be offered an alternative to cellular transmission and all eyes will be on mobile phone operators to see if they intend to push ahead with live TV over their cellular networks or migrate TV services to the overlay networks like Crown Castle Mobile Media's DVB-H system or MediaFLO USA's FLO (Forward Link Only) based solution. Their decisions have important implications for the long-term role of 3G networks in mobile TV and whether this will be limited primarily to non-live content and interactive applications.

The choice of cellular or broadcast overlay is one of many technical considerations that will be addressed at the Mobile TV World Forum, together with the issues raised when trying to combine them into hybrid delivery systems. Other areas of discussion will include the availability of suitable spectrum for the construction of DVB-H and DAB/DMB based overlay networks, the all-important attitude of regulators to mobile TV, and how spectrum choices (often forced on overlay network operators by local conditions) will affect network build and operating costs - and therefore business models.

The construction of broadcast overlay networks for mobile TV raises complicated questions about who controls the spectrum, how potential TV service providers gain access to it, and the business models that will be employed. Prior to the release of spectrum at analogue switch-off, will regulators insist on common, wholesale TV packages that are made available to all mobile TV service providers on fair and non-discriminatory terms? And if so, how do service providers differentiate themselves from rivals? And just who will be providing the mobile TV services of the future? Will Pay TV operators - with their content aggregation skills, large customer base and existing customer billing relationships - be happy to act only as content providers and leave the marketing and retailing to mobile phone companies?

Could a large Pay TV operator seek to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) itself and get into the mobile TV retail market? Or might they sell mobile TV direct to their existing subscribers without the need for a mobile phone at all - by offering customers portable devices, like a mobile Personal Video Recorder, that contains suitable broadcast reception equipment like a DVB-H or DMB receiver? What kinds of portable reception devices can we expect to see beyond mobile phones and perhaps portable PVRs?

The Mobile TV World Forum will seek the answers to these questions. Also on the agenda are content and production issues, including content genre, format and presentation for the very small screen, and the likely growth of made-for-mobile content for live and non-live programming. Other discussion themes will include: the role of interactivity as a revenue driver for mobile phone operators; interactive business models, including whether content owners can expect revenues from click-throughs; whether mobile TV is a potential saviour for the traditional advertising industry (given that mobile phones are highly personal and, for many people, always with them); and how advertising revenues will be shared.

Mobile TV is a departure from the traditional television model and presents great opportunities and challenges to all players within the content-to-consumer value chain. The Mobile TV World Forum is designed for those most closely affected, including: content owners and distributors, content aggregators and channel owners, free-to-air broadcasters, Pay TV network operators, traditional TV multiplex operators and playout service providers, broadcast transmission network operators, cellular network owners/operators, mobile phone service providers including Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), mobile phone and other receive device manufacturers, regulators, investors and analysts.

Mobile TV is not quite a blank sheet of paper today, but it is still a very immature market with most of its major technical and business issues to be determined.