Research: Western European mobile TV to $2.4B by 2012

A report issued by market analysis firm Juniper Research forecasts the number of mobile TV subscribers in Western Europe will pass 20 million by 2011, but added that following the imminent shutdown of BT/Virgin Mobile's DAB-IP service, the U.K. is not expected to relaunch mobile broadcast TV services until 2010 at the very earliest. According to Juniper, Western European mobile TV revenues will grow from just over $150 million in 2007 to nearly $2.4 billion in 2012. Italy will represent the largest market, followed by Germany and France. Given the European Commission's DVB-H mandate, Juniper said it is highly unlikely any future commercial deployments will employ an alternative standard. The report also recommended operators share broadcast network infrastructure, following the lead of Germany, where T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone are planning to jointly operate a single DVB-H network.

"After the successful launch of DVB-H-based services in Italy, many other Western European countries have either drawn up or are drawing up licensing procedures for mobile broadcast TV services," said report author Dr Windsor Holden. "However, the fact that optimal UHF spectrum will not be made available in the U.K. for several years effectively prevents any medium-term deployment of such services."

For more on Juniper Research's mobile TV forecast: 
- read this release

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