EBU: 5G FTA important for pubcasters
October 4, 2019
The EBU wants 5G broadcast standard that means FTA broadcasters can be seen without a dedicated SIM card.
The EBU’s media director Jean Philip de Tender told Media 2020 in Bucharest that the organisation will try and influence technical standards so 5G so FTA can be also be received alongside SVoD the user has subscribed to.
He said that the ability to receive FTA TV on 5G mobile phones without a specific SIM card would help preserve the future of broadcast TV.
“The user would be able to enjoy high speed connections for both the conventional internet services and the equivalent of both linear broadcast and non-linear services, on the same mobile terminal. We could watch free-to-air TV channels on any terminal, including smart phone. If we can achieve this, we will have a win-win situation for service providers and users. The question before us today is whether we can persuade standards’ groups to do so, and the network operators and handset makers to include this in their thinking,” he said.
De Tender warned that a 5G world where global internet providers becomes more available and lower cost, there would be the risk of national broadcasters ‘being dwarfed by the giant US companies’, leading to ‘a form of media imperialism’.