According to Rapid TV News, French Mobile OpCos SFR and Bouygues have expressed doubts about the business model for personal Mobile TV – essentially they are saying it isn’t viable! This news came in letters that were sent to TV channels that were selected for the country’s DVB-H project.
(Sidenote: France is one of the few countries that is organised for DVB-H, and mandated a country-wide, shared system)
The sixteen mobile TV channels had written to the operators to find out about their financial contribution to the project, the way networks would be covered, and the launch date. In fact, they were answered that previous launches in Europe have not met success and that the development of the project would be seriously affected if no business model were found.
Right now the OpCo’s are in no hurry to cannibalise their own 3G services with an unproven business-modelled broadcast service – and who can blame them? Let’s see what the French regulators make of all this …. stay tuned! (pun intended)
[Via: Rapid TV News]