The European mobile phone community was rocked by the news today that DVB-H (or Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) is set to become the new standard for mobile TV across the Union. The technology -- a superset of DVB-T -- has been spearheaded by Nokia, and this move is meant to help widen the system's audience. Though the move has been opposed by some EU states, such as Germany and Britain, the standard is being pushed through. "DVB-H will be published by the Commission in the list of official EU standards," said an EU executive, adding that, "As a result, all EU Member States will have to support and encourage the use of DVB-H for the launch of mobile TV services, thus avoiding market fragmentation and allowing economies of scale and accordingly affordable services and devices." So much for our fledgling standard, DVB-X (the X is for extreme).

Sure, we've seen the local-news-on-your-handset card pulled out before, but unlike similar alternatives, this one should work with any network and on any phone capable of handling the video. A group of ten ABC-owned television stations have announced that they will be offering up "free video content" for cellphones, most of which will consist of ad-supported streaming news clips. The service will be powered by Local Wireless, and will be available to users near WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WLS-TV in Chicago, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTRK-TV in Houston, WTVD in Raleigh-Durham, NC, KFSN-TV in Fresno, California, WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, and WTVG in Toledo, Ohio. You know the drill: give it a go, and post your adoration / gripes below.

[Via Textually]

Have Adobe Flash Lite installed on your mobile? If so, you'll be glad to know that a near-future upgrade will support video soon. Adobe's Flash Lite 3 is due out sometime before July and will natively have video support built in. The format, you ask? Well, naturally, Adobe's native video support in Flash Lite 3 will be its own Flash video format (FLV) that is used for videos all over the web these days (yeah, that goes for ads, too). Flash Lite 3 will be available on S60, BREW, and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 (most likely WM6 as well). Don't fret, though, if you don't have one of these mobile OSes at your disposal -- Adobe Flash Lite 3 will also be available on embedded operating systems from many OEMs.

Believe it or not, in some countries personal broadcasting to mobile video is actually encouraged, and Sling's about to capitalize on that more democratic "wireless dialtone" trend. (Verizon, Cingy, we're looking at you.) Paired up with 3, they've announced their SlingPlayer Symbian client for UIQ and S60 alike. At least the N73 and W950 have officially now been shown running the new client it as a part of 3's X-Series initiative, aimed at making mobile internet, well, useful to customers without fear of reprisal for data usage. (Verizon, Cingy, we're still looking at you.) UK residents will be able to get their hands on X-series gear come December 1st, but the rest of us may have to wait some undetermined amount of time before the Symbian client is released for mass consumption.

You can already upload videos from your cellphone to YouTube, but that's just the beginning. According to the recently-Googlefied company's chief executive and co-founder Chad Hurley, you'll soon be able to view videos directly on your mobile device as well. Reuters is reporting that Hurley recently told an advertising conference that he hopes to have a mobile YouTube service of some sort ready to go "within the next year," adding that it's a natural transition for them and going to be a huge market. Not surprisingly, he didn't spill any further details, so you'll have to keep on doing your time wasting the old fashioned way in the meantime.

[Via The Wireless Report]

When a person is on a mission, he/she can accomplish anything, no matter how Rube Goldberg-esque the solution turns out to be, so you can forgive Gary Lerhaupt's rather complicated how-to on streaming recorded programs to any 3G-enabled cellphone. Far too detailed to go into the specifics here, Lerhaupt's method basically programs your MythTV box to send recorded TV shows to a computer running Apple's open source Darwin Streaming Server software, which sets up dedicated URLs for each file and allows you to stream from your handset's browser at will. Those without pretty decent tech skillz should probably not attempt this one, as even the how-to assumes some knowledge of 3gp video conversion, script running, and something called an rtsp streaming protocol; instead, you're probably better off spending a few extra bucks on that Windows Mobile phone and employing the no-brainer solutions that the good folks at Orb and Sling Media have already come up with.

If you're a fan of watching shakey videos of teenagers fighting each other and illegally racing cars, then you'll be pleased to learn that YouTube has just launched a new service allowing members to upload videos directly from their cellphones. Compatible with all four major carriers, the upload service requires users to set up a mobile profile in order to generate a unique email address that all videos must be sent to for posting. What a great world we live in, where you can happy slap a stranger in the street and almost immediately broadcast your crime to millions of eager voyeurs.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

Because missing even a second of this year's football draft could wreak havoc on your performance in the coming season's fantasy leagues, Sprint is thoughtfully broadcasting the "action" live to subscribers of their Sprint TV NFL Mobile package. While this news in and of itself is rather mundane (especially to us non-football fans), the fact that Sprint has exclusive wireless rights to the draft while Monday Night Football rights-holder ESPN is barred from streaming the broadcast to its Mobile ESPN subscribers is rather interesting, and could be indicative of future trends. Although the demand for mobile TV is still definitely up in the air, might there be a day when enough rabid football fans have 3G-enabled cellphones to make it profitable for wireless carriers to bid against traditional networks on the games themselves, and broadcast them exclusively to a mobile audience?

[Via Moco News]

Nickelodeon just announced their new Nick Mobile deal for Sprint TV subscribers. The new service, presumably pumped out by MobiTV, delivers more of those two minute video clips Sprint TV subscribers are accustomed to, only now from the Nick Jr. library which features kid faves such as Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues, SpongeBob, and so on. So at least your little'ns will be entertained, albeit for a mere two minutes at a time, should you need to hunt 'em down.

MSNBC.com and Microsoft have teamed up to provide an Action Engine-powered standalone application for mobile devices that allows for quick access to news stories, videos, and photo slideshows without to need to launch a browser. Initially available as a download for a handful of Windows Mobile devices, with support for Java/BREW-enabled phones promised in the coming months, the free applet and corresponding service are ad-supported -- with the first ad spots purchased by, you guessed it, Microsoft. We took the video component through a quick run through on our PPC-6700 (shhh, don't tell Sprint!), and found the viewing experience to be quite pleasant over EV-DO, with smooth frame rates and tinny-but-acceptable audio throughout. That's not to say we'll give up streaming real MSNBC and other unedited content over Orb (again, shhh!), but this mobile app will at least retain a place on our storage card for quick access to headlines and "Today Show" clips.

[Via Business Wire]