SK Tel and T-Systems to tackle Europe mobile TV

SEOUL (Reuters) - SK Telecom Co., South Korea's top mobile operator, said it has reached a preliminary deal with T-Systems, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, to jointly enter the mobile broadcasting market in Europe and Asia.

An SK Telecom spokesman declined on Wednesday to give the size of the potential deal.

"SK Telecom and T-Systems have agreed to jointly enter the mobile TV market in Europe and Asia," SK Telecom said in a statement dated earlier this week.

"SK Telecom and T-Systems are planning to cooperate on a variety of mobile TV technologies," SK Telecom said.

SK Telecom has been looking to overseas markets for growth. Almost nine in 10 South Koreans already have a mobile phone and there is little room for domestic expansion.

T-Systems, the smallest unit of Europe's largest telecoms company, has around 56,000 staff and provides IT and telecommunication services for business clients such as DaimlerChrysler and government organisations.

As mobile call rates sag in mature markets, operators worldwide are gearing up for mobile TV broadcasting.

SK is a majority shareholder in a South Korean provider of mobile TV service, dubbed digital media broadcasting (DMB), which allows users to enjoy sports matches and other live TV programmes on mobile phones even while on moving vehicles.

Live TV technologies such as DMB, Europe's DVB-H and MediaFlo of the United States allow an unlimited number of users to watch TV at the same time, much more cheaply than on-demand video downloads.