Mobile TV made simple: the new digital standard explained

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is an America body responsible for… well, advanced television systems. It was founded in 1982, and is responsible for the standards that govern digital television in the United States. This body today announced that it is approving a new standard for digital transmissions to mobile devices, which could lead the way for a new era of mobile television.

What’s the standard?

The new service is called ATSC Mobile DTV (Digital TV), and the standard it uses is called ATSC-M/H - which very simply stands for Advanced Television Systems Committee - Mobile/Handheld. The standard that digital television already uses to broadcast works fine… when it’s being picked up by a big, fixed antenna like you have for your TV. But it’s a different ballgame when it comes to small, mobile antenna like you have in a phone. The signal tends not to be robust enough for a mobile to pick up a decent broadcast. ATSC-M/H has been designed with this in mind, and works with new coding mechanisms that protect the signal. This will allow mobile devices to pick up a much clearer signal. In effect, it will allow proper television broadcasts to mobile phones.

The broad strokes:

- ATSC Mobile DTV will allow pay TV and free ad-supported TV.
- it will support both live digital TV and file download for playback later (the standard file for both transmission and download is MPEG)
- it is designed to allow people with a net connected device to access interactive web services
- it uses the same equipment as current digital television, so only a tiny investment in infrastructure will need to be made
- ATSC-M/H is apparently based on recommendations made by both Samsung and LTE - and the Korean companies are preparing themselves to make a bundle as M/H rolls out

What we think?

It’s not too surprising to see an Asian influence in the standard. This kind of TV service has been much more popular in Japan and Korea than it is in Europe or the US. More than any other single innovation I’ve seen this year, I would say that this could lead towards a true arrival for mobile television in the West. Why? Because it bypasses your data plan completely. This will be a separate item from your 3G data consumption. Now, you will probably have the option to spend 3G money on this - after all, it’s being designed with web interactivity and downloads in mind. But what this will lead to, in all probability, is consumers paying a modest licensing fee in order to receive a proper bundle of television stations straight to their mobile. And I can only imagine that people will want that.