LMT sees commercial DVB-H in 2009

Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT) sees a commercial launch of broadcast mobile TV (DVB-H) in early 2009, company officials said on Monday, February 25.
LMT and the Latvian State Radio and Television Center (LVRTC) are testing DVB-H broadcasts of four commercial channels for the rest of the year. The broadcasts can be viewed on any DVB-H device, regardless of what operator network it is on.
There are presently very few DVB-H capable phones available in Latvia. LMT showed test broadcasts on a Nokia N-77 (not yet on sale in Latvia), LG and Samsung phones and a Quantum portable digital TV (a palm-sized device).
LMT officials indicated that a commercial package would include on-demand content that could be downloaded at night over the DVB-H network, essentially using it as a datacasting network. That would also put the LVRTC in new role, since datacasting has other applications (updating the video loops in shopping center video systems and the like). Among other downloadable files will be applications for interactive TV (using a back channel through the LMT mobile data network).
LMT president Juris Binde believes that once phones are available, DVB-H broadcasts will see "strong demand" and be watched by many LMT subscribers.
LMT's mobile TV project manager Ervins Kampans indicated that the future commercial model will probably include a number of free channels and several pay options, including monthly subscriptions to channel packets and the possibility to make "impulse purchases" of individual broadcasts as well as purchases of "accompanying content" to be downloaded in datacasts.

Latvian Mobile Telephone to sell DVB-H capable phones

Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT), will announce next week that it is offering "digital broadcast television"  to its customers. After launching mobile TV streaming (over the GSM/UMTS network) a couple of years ago, the planned announcement on February 25 can only mean that LMT will start selling and supporting DVB-H capable handsets and broadcasting DVB-H over its network (and/ or through the Latvian  national television broadcast system via the Latvian State Radio and Television Center/LVRTC ?).

The key to it, as I see it, is to put DVB-H capable handsets (LG, Nokia and others have a few) into the hands of customers/subscriber and create a viewer base for this service. The service also has to be reasonably priced. Pricing of streamed mobile TV at the outset was close to what it would cost to see the same movie at a cinema on a far bigger screen.