Spain abandons terrestrial mobile TV

For the moment, Spain will not introduce terrestrial mobile TV, according to Bernardo Lorenzo, DG of telecommunications at the Ministry of Industry, quoted in local press reports. If there is not an increase in demand, the government will allocate the frequencies destined for mobile DTT to other services.

Industry players in the country “have not proposed an appropriate business model,” he said. The country does not want to become “one of the failures that have occurred in Europe”, according to Lorenzo. Also, the technological impact for the country of not introducing broadcast mobile TV “is minimal.”

The announcement looks like another nail in the coffin of terrestrial mobile TV broadcasting and the DVB-H standard in particular. So far, just a few countries have commercially rolled out DVB-H services and not one has been a success. As a result, most countries now take a cautious approach.

According to the DG, terrestrial pay TV in Spain is now in the process of being accepted by the general public, “despite the apocalyptic messages that were circulating before the approval.”

With regards to the introduction of terrestrial HD broadcasts, the government plans to introduce legislation requiring manufacturers to include a MPEG4/HD tuner into every TV set of 21 inches and larger.