Mobile TV services will really make their mark in Europe with the roll-out of services  coinciding with the FIFA World Cup which started ion Friday, according to the CEO of tuner IC firm Microtune.

The firm is already seeing its DVB-H tuner IC used in an LG Electronics handset being used for Europe’s first commercial mobile TV service in Italy.

“We expect the commercial rollouts for the 2006 FIFA World Cup to serve as an excellent proving ground for mobile TV services. They will rigorously test the entire broadcasting system, while spurring interest, demand and deployments, “said Microtune(R), Inc. President and CEO James A. Fontaine

The firm’s DVB-H tuner is deployed in the LG Electronics' LG-U900 handsets that will be used in the Italian Hutchison (3) launch.

"Italy will prove a tipping point. The experience of Hutchison (3) in delivering mobile TV services in Rome, Milan, Turin and other cities will serve as both a test case and learning experience, identifying the interest of consumers, the appeal of content, the ruggedness of the broadcast system, the new capabilities in the mobile phones and, most importantly, the validity of the business model," said Paul O'Donovan, principal research analyst for semiconductors at Gartner Dataquest.

According to Fontaine, Microtune plans to expand upon its existing ATSC, DVB-T and DVB-H-based products to develop single chip multi-standard tuners. It also sees potential to integrate baseband processing with RF functions. This will reduce component count and cost further opening the way for truly consumer priced TV-ready handsets.

Fontaine said the firm plans to expand its Mobile MicroTuner product family for the DVB-T, DVB-H, T-DMB, ISDB-T and DMB-TH specifications.