Would-be providers of mobile television services in Europe are being asked to tender for premium sports rights without knowing which standard they will be using to prevent piracy. The International Rugby Board recently requested bids for European mobile-television rights to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will soon issue an invitation to tender for similar rights to the next Winter Olympics (Turin, 2006) and the Olympic Games (Beijing, 2008). But the standardisation process for DVB-H, which is likely to form the basis of much mobile television in Europe, is in disarray. The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), which is drawing up the standard, originally wanted the process to be completed by the end of last month, to give enough time for DVB-H services to prepare for launch in 2006.
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