Despite strong backing from handset manufacturers, mobile operators and broadcasters at its beginning, DVB-H has failed to take off in Europe for several reasons including little customer appetite for mobile TV, high prices and lack of compatible devices. DVB-H has been on a downward spiral since the end of 2009 when it became clear that neither France, Spain nor Germany would be using the technology in the foreseeable future.

Finland and Italy are the only two remaining countries in Europe with a commercial DVB-H based mobile TV service. In Finland, the service is free-to-air and only available on Nokia devices and, in Italy, operator Tre has stopped selling DVB-H devices.

Ongoing trials in Russia and Poland could potentially result in the launch of commercial services before the end of the year. Despite the technology also being pushed in some emerging and developing markets where mobile TV is more appealing to consumers, IHS Screen Digest strongly believe that the lack of compatible devices will stop any further progress.

The demise of DVB-H doesn't necessarily mean that there is not future for mobile broadcasting in Europe. Key industry players are already talking about DVB-T2 as a potential alternative. The key difference with DVB-H is that DVB-T2 will be primarily used for digital TV broadcasting and won't rely on an unproven mobile TV business case. Mobile operators are looking for ways to offload data traffic from their networks and mobile broadcasting could be an interesting option for them as long as the corresponding costs remain relatively low. Whether DVB-T2 will be able to play this role in Europe remains to be seen.