Satellite TV company Dish Networks is planning to launch a mobile TV service. The company will trial a DVB-SH service with Alcatel Lucent, reports Dow Jones, in a bid to expand its revenue base. DVB-SH delivers mobile TV via satellites, but that is backed up by a terrestrial network, which Dish doesn’t have. There has been speculation around Dish’s plans since it bought $712 million worth of licenses in the last spectrum auction, although the company isn’t saying whether the spectrum (which won’t be available until next year) will be used for the mobile TV service. The other question that is avoided is the business model—how will Dish get its service onto handsets? The standard requirement in the US market is to partner with an operator, but Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) has signed up Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T), and Sprint (NYSE: S) seems content with its 3G/WiMax plans. That doesn’t necessarily rule out deals with those telcos of course, and there are lots of other (smaller) carriers with whom deals can be made. The other option is to sell their own handsets to run on the incipient “open” networks, but that could be risky in the US. (release)

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