Abstract

The enormous business potential of the Chinese mobile TV market has encouraged large numbers of companies to move into this new field, whether as standard formulators, content providers, service providers, or in some other role. Broadcasters have so far mainly positioned themselves as content providers; telecommunications operators have been rolling out streaming video mobile TV services, while also teaming up with broadcasters to gain access to a wider range of content.

Of the various mobile TV standards that have been introduced in China, SARFT's CMMB standard has developed most rapidly. A large number of companies have joined the CMMB alliance, spectrum has already been allocated for the use of CMMB-compliant mobile TV service, and ICs for use in CMMB-compliant equipment are already starting to appear. SARFT is working to achieve the commercialization of CMMB as rapidly as possible, so that this standard can secure first mover advantage.

The CMMB standard has been developed by Chinese enterprises, which hold nearly 100 key CMMB patents. Given SARFT's status as the regulator for the broadcasting industry, there is a strong possibility that CMMB will be the eventual winner in the Chinese mobile TV standards battle.

While the rival standards are also being developed rapidly, none of them has been able to keep pace with CMMB. However, Huawei's development of CMB technology constitutes a significant development. As this streaming video technology can make a major contribution towards helping telecommunications operators to keep costs down, this technology may also be widely adopted in the future.

While the struggle over mobile TV standards continues in the broadcasting sector, China's mobile phone operators have been operating streaming video mobile TV services for over three years now. Both China Mobile and China Unicom have been working actively to achieve subscriber growth in their mobile TV services, with the aim of providing a boost to their annual sales revenue.

Currently, high charge rates continue to discourage many consumers from trying mobile TV service. In 2007, China Mobile and China Unicom began to slash their data charges, anticipating that this would encourage more consumers to start using their data services. Both operators are working to upgrade their mobile communications networks to 2.5G or 3G; by improving the user experience, they hope to keep subscriber churn to a minimum.

Besides charge rates and network upgrading, another issue that China Mobile and China Unicom need to consider is what business model to adopt for mobile TV. Within the limitations imposed by their network resources, they need to develop services that will be genuinely attractive to subscribers, rather than just acting as a middleman, charging data fees on mobile TV services developed by third-party service providers.

It can be anticipated that, in the future, broadcasters and telecommunications operators will continue to collaborate on the development of mobile TV service. Broadcasters will provide content and transmission services; telecommunications operators will provide access to the subscriber via their networks, and handle billing. This is the model which underlies SARFT's CMMB standard; SARFT believes that broadcasters and telecommunications operators can work together, leveraging their respective strengths, to develop mobile TV service in China.

Appendix

Research Scope

This report explores the development of mobile TV standards in China and the current state of mobile TV service provision. It examines the formulation of mobile TV standards by individual companies and organizations, and the prospects for widespread adoption of these various standards. The report also presents an overview of the different types of mobile TV service that have already been launched in China by broadcasters and telecommunications operators, and the outlook for their future development.

List of Companies