bmcoforum report highlights best approaches from a variety of existing national regulatory solutions
According to a recent study conducted by the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum (bmcoforum), the analysis of practices, as well as country-by-country experience in licensing and regulating mobile TV, highlighted a range of positive solutions. Countries who are about to decide on a particular regulatory framework and business model can pick and choose from these solutions to create their own regulatory framework, says the study.
The bmcoforum report is said to show the effect of regulatory frameworks on the efficiency of commercial launches, in a context where regulatory frameworks for mobile TV across Europe differ considerably. It intends to help the setting of regulatory frameworks for Mobile TV where it has yet to be defined.
According to the bmcoforum findings, all potential players of the mobile broadcast value chain - including broadcast and mobile network operators, mobile service providers, public and commercial, free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters as well as potential distributors - should be incorporated during the consultation process to enable a wide range of business models.
Consequently any chosen business model should allow for flexible and open partnerships among the different players and promote partnership opportunities without blocking each other.
As done in Austria, the regulator may wish to help to overcome cooperation barriers and so support a faster value chain set-up by asking during the tender process for proposals from complete industrial consortia, which have already established in principle an agreed value chain. However, after license granting the winning consortium should be open to add other players on fair and reasonable terms.
The chosen network approach depends on the available frequency spectra and DTT licensing frameworks. Service competition should be supported either by prescription of a wholesale / shared network approach to enable a set of distributors or by having several networks available together with limited upfront regulatory limitations. bmcoforum supports an approach where a considerable part of the capacity is left for the licensee to meet the market needs of the distributors and users. After the market start it should be in the interest of the cooperation partners to agree on the best content portfolio.
"Regulatory frameworks for mobile TV across Europe vary immensely. With this study the bmcoforum aims to provide guidance for a coherent framework for authorisation regimes across the EU by identifying best practices and promote their adoption", said Prof. Dr. Claus Sattler, Executive Director of bmcoforum.
Copies of the full report can be found at www.bmcoforum.org
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