Later this year will see the launch of BT Movio, which will be the first commercial mobile broadcast entertainment service to launch in Europe, enabling mobile operators to offer consumers a reliable live digital TV and radio service on their mobile phones. The service will be broadcast using the DAB digital radio network.

In order to prove the viability of the service prior to launch, BT undertook a pilot with a representative sample of 1,000 users in the London area. This article outlines the results of the pilot – the largest of its kind undertaken in Europe – and what this means for the future of TV-to-mobile services.

This article explores the results of the mobile TV trials in which Arqiva has been involved – in particular, the Oxford DVB-H trial. It also discusses the technology choices faced by potential service providers in the UK and elsewhere in mainland Europe, given the constraints of spectrum availability.

Broadcasters, both international and domestic, are busy turning their pilot DRM transmissions into real services. Meanwhile, the receiver manufacturers are trying hard to get their DRM radios into the shops as quickly as possible.

This article gives an insight into the DRM distribution chain used by BBC World Service, which is made up of a mixture of professional equipment and in-house developments. Playing an important role in the BBC’s overall DRM strategy is the use of open-source software, wherever possible.

Broadcasters have significant new requirements for audio delivery in next-generation broadcast systems such as High-Definition Television. These include the capability to deliver soundtracks ranging from mono to 5.1 channels and beyond – with greater efficiency than with current systems, but also to maintain compatibility with existing consumer home cinema systems.

A new audio delivery system, referred to as Enhanced AC-3 (marketing name: Dolby Digital Plus), has been developed to meet these requirements, and has been standardized in DVB and ATSC, referring to ETSI TS 102 366 V1.1.1 (2005-02).

Sharing the revenue between content providers and network operators is a recurring problem in media business modelling. It is generally a matter of negotiation between the parties, but those negotiations often lack a clear basis and have limits. This introduction will try to determine the limits of “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” revenue sharing, based on a simplied model. It does not presuppose any economic expertise from the reader.

This article defines the theoretical maximum electric and magnetic field strengths and induced leg currents that people could be exposed to at HF broadcasting frequencies, without the basic restrictions being exceeded. The article is based on a contract report, prepared for BBC World Service by the Radiation Protection Division of the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA). An overview of this HPA report is provided by Mike Hate of BBC World Service.

As more and more broadcasters use the Internet to webcast their programmes, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is becoming an interesting transport mechanism to convey these programmes to the general public, more efficiently than any traditional internet methods.

This article reports on the Seminar "From P2P to broadcasting" which was held at EBU headquarters in Geneva on 14 and 15 February 2006. It was jointly organized by the Technical and Training departments of the EBU, with the involvement of the Radio, Eurovision and Legal Departments.