REDMOND, Wash—Microsoft Corp. announced that it’s backing Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld technology as a “founding member” of the Mobile DTV Alliance. Although the group formed in January, Microsoft only today announced its membership despite its ranking as a founding member.
Microsoft joins Intel Corp., Modeo L.L.C., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. to jointly push DVB-H, an open standard for broadcast digital TV on mobile devices.
“Microsoft’s involvement with the Mobile DTV Alliance as a founding member came in the final stages of the group’s formation and given timing of the original announcement, we weren’t able to drive the appropriate approvals in time to participate in that press release,” Microsoft said in a statement. “The delay had nothing to do with strategy, it was simply a timing issue and internal resource allotment that needed to take place before official participation could be announced.”
“Demand for over-the-air delivery of digital entertainment to mobile devices is driving the need for broadly supported mobile broadcast technologies like DVB-H,” stated Pat Griffis, senior director of Windows Digital Media at Microsoft and board member of the Mobile DTV Alliance. “By combining our respective industry expertise, Microsoft and fellow founding members of the Mobile DTV Alliance will help make DVB-H-powered mobile TV a reality for consumers.”
In a press release, Microsoft emphasized that its mobile-optimized Microsoft Windows Media offering has already been successfully deployed in mobile broadcast solutions, including Modeo’s pilot of its DVB-H mobile broadcast network last year.
Modeo, a subsidiary of tower giant Crown Castle International Corp., announced plans to use Crown Castle’s tower network and spectrum rights to launch live DVB-H mobile TV in the nation’s top 30 markets, including a launch in New York this year.
“Microsoft’s participation in the Mobile DTV Alliance as a founding member will accelerate the introduction of mobile digital television based on DVB-H into cell phones, PDAs, laptops and portable media players,” said Michael Schueppert, president of Modeo.
Last July, the Flo Forum, led by Qualcomm Inc. and its MediaFlo subsidiary, came to life as several companies lined up behind Qualcomm to jointly promote global standardization of the company’s proprietary Flo technology for multicasting broadcast-quality video. MediaFlo technology has support from handset vendors Kyocera Wireless Corp., LG Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sanyo Co. Ltd., Sharp Corp. and others. In addition, Verizon Wireless recently announced plans to offer MediaFlo’s mobile TV service.
