Germany

[DE] Testing of Digital-Multimedia-Broadcasting (“Handy-TV”)

IRIS 2005-10:1/20

Jacqueline Krohn

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Institute for Communication of the Land Baden-Württemberg (LFK) has, by a recently initiated invitation to tender for the allocation of broadcasting capacity, launched a nationwide pilot project for mobile broadcasting services (“Handy-TV”) and in so doing was the first Land Media Institute to implement a decision of the Directors' Conference of the Land Media Institutes. At the end of August 2005, the aforementioned institutes had recommended taking the necessary steps for the implementation of the project. The objective of the project, as identified by the LFK, was essentially the acquisition of knowledge through the technical and economic feasibility of playing television, radio and media services over mobile phones.

The transmission of mobile broadcasting is to occur in what is known as the DMB standard. Digital-Multimedia-Broadcasting (DMB) is an internationally standardised transmission procedure making it possible to receive television, radio and media services on a mobile phone. Unused capacity, in what is referred to as the L-Band, is currently available for the introduction of DMB in Germany.

In the invitation to tender, which is also to take place in the other Federal Länder by the end of November 2005, “platform operators” are being sought who can put together three to four television channels or television formats suitable for a mobile phone, and along with mobile phone operators bring them on to the market. A pre-requisite for such an operation is the setting-up of a new nationwide transmission network for DMB. This requires more substantial investment.

The other Land media institutes plan to launch their invitations to tender by 30 November 2005.

After the invitations to tender have been concluded, the Land media institutes involved want to select, through a co-ordinated procedure, those applicants for project participants who seem to be most suited to realising the project's objectives.