Mobile TV providers struggling to survive in South Korea Lack of scale will limit number of DMB deployments across Asia

摘要

The digital-media-broadcasting (DMB) mobile TV platform has failed to take off in South Korea, and the technology appears set to struggle in the rest of Asia because of its lack of scale. The problems associated with DMB in South Korea appear to stem from how the technology has been implemented, a process described by one local analyst as "very much government-driven" and designed to create a cash cow for the country's economy. DMB was expected to provide lucrative export opportunities for local companies. One satellite-DMB (S-DMB) platform - the SK Telecom-led TU Media - and six terrestrial-DMB (T-DMB) platforms were licensed by the government, though many in the industry are still questioning whether both S-DMB and T-DMB licenses should have been issued. TU Media launched May 1, 2005, and the first T-DMB platforms appeared in December 2005.