Last month, the European Union took a major step in the development of Mobile TV by adding the Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld standard (DVB-H) to its List of Standards for telecommunications across the EU.

According to Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media, “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.”

DVB-H is the most widely used standard for Mobile TV in the EU. It is currently between trials and commercial launch in 16 countries. Commercial DVB-H services are already available in Italy (where it was first rolled out by network operator 3 during the Word Soccer Cup in 2006), with further launches expected later this year notably in Finland, Austria, France, Switzerland and Spain.

Those that have seen DVB-H broadcasts tend to remark on the excellent picture quality, crisp in detail and smooth in streaming. Difficult for us to confirm this though, as we typically are still only in a trial stage here in the US.