China's broadcasting authority yesterday refuted a media report that the nation's newly released technology standards for mobile TV may risk violating the intellectual property rights of its European counterpart.

The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) said in a statement that it has full intellectual property rights over the China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting Standard (CMMB).

CMMB, released this October by the SARFT, will be used to deliver mobile video services before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Previous reports claiming that CMMB may have copied the technology of DVB-SH, a European standard, were groundless and have severely damaged CMMB's image," said the statement posted on SARFT's website.

A previous report by the electronics industry newspaper EE Times said the CMMB standard "bears a striking resemblance" to the European DVB-SH standard, and "could also raise some sticky IP issues."

The report also quoted industry insiders such as the Olivier Coste, president of Alcatel/Lucent's Mobile Broadcast unit, as saying that CMMB is similar to DVB-SH.

The SARFT said its Academy of Broadcasting Science and Beijing TiMi Technologies Co Ltd have spent four years developing its Satellite and Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure (STiMi), the core technology the CMMB standard is based on. The SARFT added that STiMi has substantial technological differences with DVB-SH

Moreover, the European DVB-SH standard was only drafted this June and has yet to be finalized, the SARFT said.

A public relations official from Alcatel Shanghai Bell, a local joint venture of Alcatel/Lucent, said the company has not conducted any studies concerning the intellectual property of cellular mobile TV and cannot make any comment on the issue.

The SARFT released the CMMB standard this October, requiring local broadcasters to adopt it for mobile video services. The rollout of the standard is expected to put mobile video broadcasting services into commercial use in 2008.

Mobile services operators and broadcasters are betting on providing video content for further growth. China is now the world's largest mobile phone market, which represents great potential for mobile TV services with its 455 million handset users.

Industry insiders estimate the mobile phone TV market in China is expected to reach 6.05 billion yuan (US$756 million) in 2008.

The nation has been attaching great importance to the development of home grown technology standards in recent years. The approach is expected to benefit local companies by reducing the amount of money they have to pay in royalties and intellectual property fees to overseas companies.

China has worked for several years to develop the TD-SCDMA standard, a home grown standard for third generation wireless networks.

(China Daily 12/26/2006 page9)