Little progress with French mobile TV

The French media authority CSA has called for a meeting in February with all interested parties to discuss progress of mobile TV in the country.

There seems to be little interest from the broadcasters and the three main mobile operators (Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom) to launch a DVB-H service and the authority now hopes to speed up the process. According to a report in L’Express, the CSA has approached a fourth mobile operator, Iliad’s Free, to gauge interest.

In most countries, mobile TV using a DVB-H network has failed to make an impact on the market. Hence the reluctance to launch such a service. (See also Broadband TV News passim for recent developments in Germany).

In order to launch a mobile TV service, operators have to invest heavily in building a network of new transmitters as well as convincing customers to buy handsets with DVB-H tuners.

In May, 2008, the CSA issued licences to 13 broadcasters for mobile TV, TF1 , France 2, France 3, Arte, Canal+, M6, BFM TV, Direct 8, Eurosport, i-télé, NRJ 12, NT1, Virgin 17, W9, EuropaCorp and Orange Sport.