Mobile TV broadcasts will reach the global masses in 2008, Ericsson predicted, saying it will work closely with Japan's Sony to develop new media solutions for home users over wireless connections, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report said about one third of the world's mobile phone users will regularly be watching TV broadcasts on their handsets in two years, which will open up lucrative industries for both content producers and network distributors, according to Per Nordlof, Ericsson's director of product strategy, at a joint press briefing with Sony in Stockholm.
The two companies already have the joint venture Sony Ericsson for making mobile phones, but said they also see numerous opportunities for cooperation to cash in on the expected boom for mobile TV, the Associated Press report added.
The two companies demonstrated a number of solutions it thinks will soon become commonplace in home entertainment, including systems where film footage and pictures can easily be sent between a regular TV and a mobile phone, allowing friends and family members to share footage at the press of a button, the report said.
The Associated Press further quoted Nordlof as saying that such solutions, based on the Digital Living Network Alliance, a cross-industry standard for allowing digital devices to share content through a home network, could hit the market by the second half of 2007.
Ericsson and Sony will also work together to create new software to power such DLNA-based home networks, he said.