Finnish radio and television distributor Digita, part of the TDF group, has signed the world’s first commercial DVB-H mobile television platform supply contract with Nokia. The network will reach 29 per cent of the population of Finland by the end of 2006.
Digita obtained the DVB-H network licence from the Finnish Government earlier this year. The operator will be responsible for the broadcasting network and administration of channels.
Nokia will provide its Mobile Broadcast Solution which supports the broadcast of live television, radio and video clips over DVB-H networks to mobile devices. This provides an Electronic Service Guide and flexible programming pricing schemes. The OMA DRM 2.0 standard will be used for service protection.
Digita, Elisa, MTV3, Nelonen, Nokia, Sonera and YLE jointly conducted a mobile television trial with 500 users in Finland in 2005. The results of the pilot suggested the popularity and willingness to pay for mobile video services among consumers.
The first stage of the network rollout will cover the centre of Helsinki, and the cities of Turku, Tampere and Oulu. It is ultimately expected to cover the majority of the Finnish population.
“Nokia is extremely pleased to see the start of commercial mobile TV roll outs that are based on open standards. Nokia strongly believes that mobile TV based on open standards prevents fragmentation of the DVB-H market and enables a healthy competitive open market,” said Harri Männistö, director of multimedia at Nokia.