(26 October 2006 5:00 pm)

Hong Kong: The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has announced the formal launch of the Casbaa Mobile Group, a team of organisation members dedicated to the effective, business-model focused deployment of mobile TV services across the Asia Pacific.

The announcement was made during the first plenary day of the Casbaa Convention 2006 in Hong Kong.

Among the Casbaa members participating in this Casbaa Group are mobile content providers such as Turner Broadcasting, ESPN Star Sports, CNBC Asia, BBC World, Star Group, Walt Disney Television International and Sony Pictures TV International, as well as platform operator PCCW, handset manufacturer Nokia and chipset supplier Sun Microsystems.

The Casbaa Mobile Group met with the DVB-H Asia Pacific Alliance (Dapa), which comprises DVB-H dedicated broadcast platform operators such as Bridge Networks of Australia, MiTV of Malaysia and MECA from Indonesia, as well as Nokia, an official statement from Casbaa said.

“The Casbaa objective is to create an environment where the regulatory and business issues surrounding Mobile TV can be debated with hard information exchanged to encourage the distribution of paid video content to as many Mobile TV subscribers as possible,” said Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies.

The Casbaa engagement with Dapa followed a meeting earlier in the year with the Asia Mobile Initiative (AMI), where video-to-mobile streaming information was exchanged with roaming platforms M1-Vodafone (Singapore), Celcom (Malaysia), DTAC (Thailand) and SMART (Philippines).

“As is demonstrated by the heavy emphasis on mobile issues in our the Casbaa Convention programme this year, the pay-TV industry places the development of a robust business model for Mobile TV as one of its highest priorities for our digital future,” said Twiston Davies.

There is a long-term commitment by the content industry to work more closely with mobile platforms and manufacturers to create an economically viable business for everyone. This is just the beginning of the development of new and substantive revenue stream for our industry, he added.