Introduction

The analogue-to-digital switchover of terrestrial broadcasting services is under way in all ITU Regions. Some countries have not yet taken a decision when to start, whilst other countries have already passed the 50% penetration level of digital TV reception within the household segment.

The development of in-vehicle entertainment systems based on stored content such as games, music and movies is about to reach its state of technology maturity.

IMT-2000 network offerings have begun to include on-demand streaming to handsets of TV-news, sports, etc., and specifications within 3GPP/3GPP2 are well under way to include an optimized transport mechanism¹ for consumption of multimedia content via the IMT-2000 network and associated mobile radio spectrum in multicast mode.

The gap still not addressed at ITU level is the predicted large segment of digital broadcasting to handheld terminals via broadcast spectrum in a mobile environment including in-door, in-vehicle and in-transit reception at speeds matching at least IMT-2000 characteristics.

Broadcasting of multimedia and data applications to mobile devices will also elaborate the expanded service opportunities offered by the inclusion of interactivity through the application of wireless networks such as those of the IMT-2000 family.

These developments form the major background for Question ITU-R 45/6 with its request for a global view on this new market, which is about to emerge around a few major regional standards/specifications.

This Report is a first attempt to answer Question ITU-R 45/6 on broadcasting multimedia and data applications for mobile reception. It identifies a number of application and system requirements for broadcasting of multimedia and data applications for mobile reception that encompass types of mobile receivers, the system characteristics, possible data transmission mechanisms, content formats, interoperability between telecommunication services and digital broadcasting services, and display patterns. It is recognized that these high-level application and system requirements may be met by a number of different technologies and communications platforms.

Several of the systems described in this Report have reached stages of maturity including the result of field trials and preliminary system specifications.

¹ 3GPP MBMS (Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service); 3GPP2 BCMCS (Broadcast/Multicast Services).