Policy making in the technology field is no easy task and policy makers can make decisions that are counter productive and / or consumer unfriendly. Mobile TV is a hallmark example of this can go astray.
The European Commission decided in 2008 that the future of TV services in Europe would be over DVB-H. Two years have gone by with little progress. Take France for example. Neither mobile phone operators nor broadcasters are willing to pick up the bill for a DVB-H network (DVB-H requires a new broadcasting network). As a consequence the media regulator, CSA, is hosting discussions with operators and broadcasters on how to move this market forwards. This is putting the horse before the cart. The regulator should not investigate how to put TV services onto portable phones, but how to facilitate (if needed) entertainment services on portable devices. Entertainment services encompass so much more than just TV broadcasts.
Yet regulators, such as the European Commission, push DVB-H and mobile TV broadcast services on the industry and eventually on consumers. This is a policy making failure in technology waiting to happen. As so often with technology, just because something is technically feasible does not mean that it is viable or sensible from a business perspective, nor what consumers actually want.
How some regulators approach the market for entertainment services on mobile phones and other portable personal devices is problematic. The concept of mobile TV is largely to take the living room TV experience and adopt it to a small screen device This indicates a lack of understanding of business models, consumers and technologies. The needs and requirements for entertainment on a mobile phone are different than in the living room of a home. The setting and surroundings, state of mind, time allocation, competition for time, moods and so on are unpredictable and highly variable.
This means mobile entertainment services (which includes TV) need to be flexible to accommodate these unpredictable needs and variables. Broadcasting services are poorly positioned to do so since the whole concept of broadcast TV is to reach as many as possible with content that is suited to the mass market in a linear model. This one-size-fits all approach is unable to deliver the needs of mobile entertainment needs.
Open up networks for data services
Instead policy makers should focus on how sufficient bandwidth is made available to build new consumer services on portable devices, without defining specific delivery mechanism or business models. Therefore, the bands for DVB-H should be converted to data services bands (for example LTE/Wimax/WiFi) where the network operator has as little control over the service delivery as possible. This could foster further innovative services based on actual consumer demand, not based on concepts driven forth by policy makers. Consumers that prefer using social networking and media services over broadcasting services are not consuming 'less' valuable entertainment services. These services may be less glamours and may not be as beneficial to a country's own film and TV industry, but nevertheless what consumers want is also what is valuable.
Regulation of technology markets is very important, however, it is key that policy makers understand the impacts of their technology choices and that consequences of regulating markets with specific market end states can be a dangerous gamble. How certain policy makers have approached mobile TV and entertainment services shows how policy making in the technology field can inhibit innovation instead of spurring market growth.
