Six Japan broadcasters agree on digital TV standard for cellphones

Japan's six major television networks said they have agreed on a terrestrial digital standard aimed at beaming high-quality TV images to mobile phones, starting March 2006, according to the AFP.

"Publicly funded Japan Broadcasting Corp, along with private stations TBS, NTV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo agreed on the deal with MPEG LA, LLC, a group that negotiates on behalf of the multiple patent holders involved.

While the networks agreed to broadcast the new service free of charge, no handset makers or mobile phone service providers have said they would jump on the bandwagon".

"I think if we decide to make this a business, we will have to make sure our phones are compatible with this standard," said a spokeswoman for NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's largest operator with some 45.5 million subscribers.

Vodafone KK, the third-largest operator with 14.9 million users, said it had no comment on the announcement.

Vodafone is the only cellphone operator in Japan to offer a handset model equipped with analog TV tuners, which it launched last October."

emily | 5:10 PM | TV on Cell Phones |
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