The European Commission (EC) has plans to encourage the take-up of mobile TV across the continent by backing a single technological standard for transmissions.

What does that mean?

It means that mobile TV networks will be obliged to use a single technical standard, DVB-H, to transmit live TV to mobile phones. At the moment there are several potential systems at varying levels of development and acceptance, but DVB-H is seen by the EC's information society and media commissioner Viviane Reding as "the strongest contender for future mobile TV."

The announcement is partly a response to the mobile industry's failure to unite behind a single standard under its own steam via industry advisory body the European Mobile Broadcasting Council (EMBC). While the EC is currently only recommending the adoption of DVB-H, the implication is that it has the option to make it mandatory at a later date.

Why would a single standard be good?

In the short term, it means that manufacturers and networks don't need to spend time and resources developing their own pet technologies which by definition can't be used with their rivals. If there's only one standard for mobile TV, you wouldn't have to change handsets when you move from one territory to another (or have a handset that can handle all the different standards, which would drive up costs and complexity).

Just as Sony all but abandoned its ATRAC software in the face of the unrelentingly popular onslaught of Apple iTunes -backed AAC , it makes sense for everyone to adapt their offering to a single platform. The difference is that the chosen platform has been imposed, rather than allowed to become a winner through its own merits.

But it's not as though it hasn't happened before - way back in the late Eighties the EU set the GSM standard for mobile phones in Europe - which is why they're different from those in the US and Japan) - and by common consent helped promote the European mobile phone market to the lofty heights it has reached today.

Are there any disadvantages?

Not necessarily for the consumer, since the capabilities of the various standards are broadly similar, though the companies that have already invested millions in alternative technologies won't be too happy about it.

Most of the UK networks and several manufacturers already support DVB-H ( Vodafone , T-Mobile , O2 and Nokia , Sony Ericsson , Philips and Motorola ) and some existing mobile TV services such as BT Movio can be adapted to incorporate it.