The Open Mobile Video Coalition has issued an open letter to technology companies urging them to adopt a single standard for digital TV signals for cell phones, PDAs and other mobile devices.

The coalition is made up of mainstream broadcasters, including Fox, Gannett, Telemundo, NBC, Tribune and others.

The current terrestrial digital TV system was designed to maximize broadcast coverage to fixed locations in homes and isn’t optimized for mobile use. Broadcasters are looking for a single mobile technology standard that will be backward compatible with the existing digital TV signal, instead of using other spectrum requiring an entirely new digital TV infrastructure.

Broadcasters are racing to speed the development and adoption of mobile broadcast TV, as other options, including video podcasting and YouTube, are already bringing digital video to mobile devices like iPods and the new iPhone.

A request for proposal for a backwards compatible mobile and handheld standard for TV broadcasters was issued in May, with preliminary proposals due to the Advanced Television Systems Committee June 21, and final proposals due July 6.

“The Coalition believes that one of the major threats to the successful and timely introduction and adoption of new mobile video products and services is a marketplace format war among incompatible approaches,” the Coalition wrote. “We believe that reaching a single open standard that fosters healthy competition and encourages consumer confidence and rapid adoption is ultimately in everyone’s best interests.”

via MediaWeek