For over two decades, the vision of delivering broadcast television directly to handheld devices has inspired numerous technological initiatives—from DVB-H and MediaFLO to DVB-T2 and ATSC3.0. Yet despite the promise, these solutions struggled to achieve lasting success due to a combination of technological limitations, fragmented ecosystems, and commercial challenges.

Peter Siebert (PhD), Broadcast Industry Advisor of the Open University gives a historical overview of mobile broadcasting efforts, analyzing the technical approaches and market assumptions that shaped each generation. It will examine why these solutions failed to gain sustainable traction, even as mobile video consumption exploded through unicast and streaming platforms.

Against this backdrop, 5G Broadcast emerges as a new candidate—leveraging cellular infrastructure, standardization within 3GPP, and convergence with mobile networks. The session concludes by exploring whether 5G Broadcast can succeed where others have not, and what conditions must be met for that success to materialize.