A significant number of European countries still need to make decisions to be able to exploit the current market potential of mobile TV, according to a recently published study conducted by the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum (bmcoforum).

The industry body analysed the status of national licensing frameworks for terrestrial mobile broadcast TV in 23 countries, among them 21 from Europe.

It concluded that a significant number of countries are still lagging behind most advanced countries in defining their regulatory framework including the licensing conditions and processes.

Bmcofourm's research found after two years of operational service, mobile TV is now being used on about one million service-capable devices. Licence granting is completed in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland and in process in France and Hungary.

In addition, the majority of central European countries have assigned terrestrial frequencies, established regulatory and licensing frameworks and have started or are about to launch mobile broadcast TV services in 2008.

Other countries such as Belgium, Greece, Portugal and Spain as well as the majority of Northern and East European countries have not yet decided upon licensing conditions and processes.

Given that these processes normally take quite some time and effort requiring public consultations and law changes, bmcoforum therefore sees an urgent need for these countries to speed up the decision process in order to take advantage of the present market opportunities for terrestrial mobile broadcast TV.

"As according to the European Commission, mobile broadcast TV can reach a worldwide market worth up to € 20 billion by 20111, bmcoforum is urging all national regulators to allow for a fast service kick-off in their countries", said Prof. Dr. Claus Sattler, Executive Director of bmcoforum.

Further analysis of regulation and licensing practice and of the experiences of countries more advanced in these processes is under way at bmcoforum to support implementations of regulatory frameworks in countries, which are about to decide on their regulatory frameworks and preferred business models.

The full report is available for download at http://www.bmcoforum.org/index.php?id=70