The future of TV is streaming, so broadcasters in Europe have been looking at ways in which the terrestrial TV spectrum can be used to deliver services via 5G Broadcast.
5G Broadcast to consumer has been ready for commercial rollout since early 2023. Standardisation has been largely completed, trial operations by the leading broadcasters in Europe have been underway for several years, and the first smartphone prototypes including essential features of 5G Broadcast have already been developed.
Now, the European 5G Broadcast handset taskforce, gathering European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Broadcast Networks Europe (BNE) members, has published a 5G Broadcast receiver profile for use by companies within the broadcast ecosystem that are preparing for a roll-out of 5G Broadcast services in Europe. The receiver profile is a major milestone for the introduction of smartphones with 5G Broadcast reception functionality in Europe.
As a result, a 5G Broadcast receiver profile for Europe has now been finalised and submitted to 5G-MAG, the industry association which, among other tasks, oversees the development and maintenance of the 5G Broadcast specification (ETSI TS 103 720). The common goal is to add this profile into the next version of the ETSI specification to clearly communicate the European requirements for a profile that seeks to ensure harmonisation across Europe to allow and encourage chipset and CE manufactures to incorporate the profile in their development roadmaps.
Why is this required?
The broadcast ecosystem benefits from harmonised technical requirements for the end-user devices (in this case mobile phones), to ensure compatibility across Europe, therefore also allowing a sustainable business model for broadcasters and broadcast network operators. Members of the EBU and BNE from France (France Télévisions and TDF), from Italy (RAI and EITowers), from Germany (Media Broadcast), and from Austria (ORS), have formed a working group to establish a common receiver profile for 5G Broadcast in Europe – also with the support of Qualcomm Technologies.
5G Broadcast allows broadcasters to stream free-to-air TV to a variety of devices. Crucially, it maintains free access to public service content without an ISP or mobile network operator acting a gatekeeper.
5G Broadcast uses the frequencies currently used by digital terrestrial TV (DTT). It can sit on adjacent frequencies to DTT and not interfere with DTT, so can be used side-by-side.
It doesn’t require access to an existing mobile (-phone) network. The 5G Broadcast network can be standalone, using existing TV transmitter sites.
At present, focus is on delivering 5G Broadcast to mobiles. Users of 5G Broadcast-enabled devices would be able to access the 5G Broadcast network to watch live TV without using their own mobile network data, similar to how users of wi-fi enabled devices can switch to wi-fi and stream, but without a mobile operator or ISP as middleman.
In the future, 5G Broadcast compatibility is likely to be extended to TVs. That would allow TVs to access the 5G Broadcast network instead of DTT for remaining live TV services. That could become relevant in European countries in the mid-2030s, when existing DTT networks could begin to be retired.
Source: https://rxtvinfo.com/2024/milestone-for-5g-broadcast-rollout/