By Terry Maxon

The Dallas Morning News

For a handful of viewers, the World Cup this month will be played out not in huge stadiums but on the tiny screens of their cell phones.

Texas Instruments Inc. and some partners will broadcast live soccer games to mobile phones in a demonstration in New York and Munich, Germany.

Their hope: The high quality digital broadcasts will stir up more interest in mobile television, particularly for handsets that use chips made by TI.

“The advantage is having it in your purse or pocket and being able to see it anywhere,” TI spokeswoman Gail Chandler said.

“Once people see it, I think there will be a tremendous amount of interest.”

Ready or not, many wireless phone users worldwide will get the opportunity in the next few years to buy television service on mobile phones.

Companies are investing billions of dollars in networks, programming and phone technology for the prospect of many more billions in profits.

In Italy and Germany, operators are rolling out mobile TV networks in time for the World Cup, which started with matches in Munich and Gelsenkirchen and will offer games in a dozen German cities before the July 9 final in Berlin.

Mobile video trials have been under way elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

Qualcomm Corp., which offers a technology standard different from the one TI has embraced, showed off its TV channels in April as the wireless industry gathered in Las Vegas for its annual convention.

A competitor is starting its own digital video system in the same city.

But the tremendous interest and investment in mobile video are accompanied by uncertainty about what consumers want and will pay for. Among the unknowns:

• Should the video signal be transmitted on a separate network or through a cellular phone company’s network?