O2 and NTL have announced that they will be trialling a DVB-H mobile video service in Oxford, England next spring. That they have chosen DVB-H over the competing standards is good news for the platform’s supporters.

Nine transmitters will send sixteen channels of video to 500 O2 customers, with proposed content covering sport, music, news and ahem, soap operas. Those involved in the trial will be given phones from Sony and Nokia.

The trial is concerned with measuring consumer demand for video services, rather than being a purely technical pilot. Usage will be extensively tracked to see just what sort of service people might actually be interested in using.

The head of media business development at NTL’s Broadcast Division, Terry Howard, said: “This is a commercial trial to test the business case for a mobile TV service in the UK. We’ve performed extensive market research about consumer demand and viewing habits and it looks very positive, but these results need to be validated in a trial environment in conjunction with key players in the industry.”

O2 on the news

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