The European Commission backed a Nokia-led mobile television broadcasting standard on Wednesday in a move that could spur growth in the fledgling but potentially lucrative sector.

    The lac kof a single technology has held back wider take-up for television on cell phones, and the European Union's support for digital video broadcast handheld (DVB-H) could be the decisive factor in the battle to establish a global standard.

    The Commission said on its Web site that DVB-H "appears to be the strongest contender for future mobile TV deployment in Europe" and is already the most popular standard in Europe.

    "The Commission therefore considers that DVB-H will form the basis for successful introduction and take-up of terrestrial mobile TV services in the E.U.," it said.

    The choice is a blow for Qualcomm and for South Korean vendors which have promoted their own technologies.

    The Commission said it "will continue to monitor the situation in the E.U. and may come forward with proposals in 2008 including, if appropriate, making this open standard mandatory.”

    The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said it appreciated that the Commission did not yet mandate a single standard for mobile TV and encouraged it to follow a principle of technological neutrality also in the future.

    The European Union executive made GSM (global system for mobile communication) mandatory as a cell phone standard in the 1990s, opening the door for rapid growth in the sector. Today, 82 percent of all mobile users around the world use GSM.

    So far only DVB-H has a global presence, while South Korea, Japan, the United States, and China are embracing local rivals.

    Som eof the other technologies are also making a play for the global market, preventing services being offered worldwide under a single standard.