Finnish Mobile TV Project

Europe : Mobile TV broadcasts continue in August at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, where the guests of the companies behind the Finnish Mobile TV project will be able to use mobile TV for the first time at an international sporting event. YLE (The Finnish Broadcasting Company) will be providing mobile TV users with a multi-channel package, including a domestic broadcast of the Championships, which includes both YLE TV1 and YLE TV2's coverage of the Championships. In addition, mobile TV users will receive the compilation broadcast for international distribution and five special Championships broadcasts of individual events (running events, field events, race walking and the marathon). Each event can thus be followed without a break from start to finish.

During the World Championships in Athletics, the mobile TV users also have access to regular YLE TV1, MTV3, Nelonen, CNN, BBC World and Eurosport TV programs. The real-time TV programs will be watched on the Nokia 7710 smartphone equipped with a special accessory to receive mobile TV broadcasts.

The World Championships in Athletics offer an excellent environment to demonstrate use cases for mobile TV, and specifically how new content can be produced for mobile TV devices. For example, the users can watch the games on their way to the stadium or anytime they are away from the action.

Digita, Elisa, MTV, Nelonen, Nokia, Sonera and YLE jointly conducted the mobile TV pilot in Finland from 8.3.2005 to 20.6.2005. The pilot, which took place in the Helsinki capital region, tested the feasibility of watching television broadcasts using a mobile device. According to the initial pilot results, mobile TV services proved popular with the participants of the pilot, as 58% said that they believe that mobile TV services will be popular. Familiar TV channels were watched also on a mobile device and the test users watched between 5 to 30 minutes of mobile TV per day. Full results of the Finnish mobile TV pilot will be released 30.8.2005.

DVB-H technology allows television channels to be distributed effectively to users of mobile devices. All television channels and special event channels can be accessed by viewers as live broadcasts cost-effectively irrespective of the number of recipients. It is easy for users to view the channels. Supplementary interactive features are also easy to use on the same mobile TV device.