January 19th saw the launch of a digital television service on the
public transport system in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. DIMO TV, standing
for "Digital Mobile Television", uses DVB-T to broadcast to 165 buses
and 6 harbour ferries. This service follows the success of similar
services in Singapore (TVMobile) and Shanghai (Oriental Pearl Mobile
TV).
DIMO TV is
unusual in that it has been set up on a non-commercial, public service
broadcast basis – the programming is free of advertising. Content
consists of news and weather, traffic news, documentaries, language
lessons, entertainment news and so on. To keep discomfort for
passengers to a minimum, sound levels are low and all programmes are
subtitled.
Covering the whole metropolitan area of Kaohsiung is
a main transmitter of 5kw with one filler site on the 85th floor of the
Grand Formosa. Each bus is equipped with a DVB-T receiver and a 19" LCD
screen. The project was initiated by the Taiwan Public Television
Service.