Norway, the UK, Italy, Manla and the Netherlands are joining forces in a race to see who can waste the most time and money when it comes to the standard for getting TV on your mobile phone by forming the International DMB Advancement Group (IDAG). In March 2008, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media said:
“For Mobile TV to take off in Europe, there must first be certainty about the technology. This is why I am glad that with today’s decision, taken by the Commission in close coordination with the Member States and the European Parliament, the EU endorse DVB-H as the preferred technology for terrestrial mobile broadcasting.”
Leave it to five countries to make operators hesitant about which technology to build out, make handset makers uneasy about supporting one technology over the other and making consumers wait even longer to watch Eurovision and 10 year old music videos on their movile phones. TV via DMB is working in Norway, will be turned on in the Netherlands and Malta this year, and is currently being tested in small scales in Italy and the UK.