Competitors LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics will work together on the in-band mobile digital TV market no matter whose technology is adopted as a standard for the North American market, a vow that will smooth the road to mobile TV services.

The two have competing, incompatible technologies for in-band mobile TV. Both have been undergoing evaluation in field trials over the past few months.

The agreement minimizes the likelihood of a standards battle in the future in-band mobile TV market, and intimates that there will be at least two major suppliers of necessary products.

A group called the Association of Maximum Service Television (MSTV) conducted the field trials. Tomorrow the MSTV will present the results, in a report referred to as the IDOV (Independent Demonstration of Viability), to the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), a consortium populated largely by broadcasters that would deploy the mobile TV system.

Ultimately, whatever standard the OMVC selects for a single common in-band mobile DTV system will be submitted to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) to be considered as a formal standard.

LG and Samsung agreed to cooperate in order to assure rapid adoption by the ATSC of a single common in-band mobile DTV standard. The ATSC’s formal adoption of the proposal as a standard could be completed as early as next year.

In a finely tuned statement, the two said the “technology for the jointly proposed system will reflect the findings of the IDOV.”

An LG spokesperson said that the two may release details on precisely what that cooperation might entail only after the IDOV results are presented.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has projected that with the adoption of a single ATSC mobile/handheld DTV standard, the U.S. market for mobile DTV phones will reach 130 million units by the end of 2012, with the market for portable media device mobile DTV receivers growing to include an additional 25 million units. (Source: "Study of the Impact of Multiple Systems for Mobile/Handheld Digital Television," BIA Financial Network, Jan. 14, 2008.)

More Broadband Direct:

• Cox racks up double-digit growth in Q1 

• LG, Samsung join to speed arrival of mobile TV market 

• TVWorks, itaas team up on tru2way developments 

• EchoStar offers new SlingModem . . . to cable 

• Dish Network's first-quarter profit up 65% 

• U-verse TV goes green with Energy Star set-tops 

• AT&T launches Business U-verse platform 

• Broadband Briefs for 5/14/08 

More Broadband Direct:

• Cox racks up double-digit growth in Q1 

• LG, Samsung join to speed arrival of mobile TV market 

• TVWorks, itaas team up on tru2way developments 

• EchoStar offers new SlingModem . . . to cable 

• Dish Network's first-quarter profit up 65% 

• U-verse TV goes green with Energy Star set-tops 

• AT&T launches Business U-verse platform 

• Broadband Briefs for 5/14/08