European Cup: ...the cup of cupsThe Mobile 3.0 consortium is expected to get the go-ahead for a pilot rollout of mobile phone TV based on DVB-H broadcast technology. This was announced by the German Association of State Media Authorities in Düsseldorf. Mobile 3.0 expects to conclude the necessary agreements with its technical service provider and marketing partners over the next few weeks. The approvals by the media authorities in each the Länder should be issued in good time for the European Football Championship.

This would ensure transmissions to mobile phones from eight television channels and several radio stations from early June. Users will be charged around five euros per month for the service.

In addition to public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, private television companies RTL, Vox, Sat.1 and Pro Sieben as well as N24 and n-tv will be there at the start. Digital 5, bigBuddy and KickFM will provide radio broadcasts. The basic format for regional services is expected to be agreed in the next few weeks. The news agency dpa quotes the President of the Regional Office for Communication, Thomas Langheinrich, as saying that the mobile phone television service using the DMB broadcast standard will be discontinued.