Score One for Nokia's DVB-H

The European Union will be recommending the DVB-H as the mobile TV standard in, well, Europe, when it publishes its findings in July.

Currently there are three competing mobile TV "standards" in Europe: Nokia's DVB-H, Qualcomm's MediaFLO, and South Korea's T-DMB. However, DVB-H has been more widely accepted by EU member countries - not to mention that Nokia is the only European country on that short list.

So just how important is this decision? Pretty big or pretty small, depending on how much of a future you think there is in mobile TV. The EU's influence is potentially enormous: thanks to the European Commission (part of the EU), Europe went whole-hog GSM and never looked back - and look where GSM is now. According to the commission, mobile TV will generate 4-5 billion Euros ($5.36-6.70 billion USD) in global sales in the next 2 years.

In the United States, MediaFLO is the de facto standard and will probably retain its head start on the competition, at least until DVB-H actually goes live. (it's in a trial period right now in certain regions)

What I find funny and just a tad bit ridiculous at the same time, is the fact that the European Union "contributed $54 million to developing the DVB-H standard." Of course they're not going to recommend MedioFLO or T-DMB! Honestly, the whole thing reeks of fishiness, but then again, Qualcomm isn't exactly on my list of favorite companies.

So I think I'll just go with the flow.