South Korean handset manufacturers LG (SEO: 066570) and Samsung have agreed to work together on a mobile TV technology that they hope will become the North American standard. The idea is to combine LG’s Mobile Pedestrian Handheld (MPH) and Samsung’s A-VSB (advanced-vestigial sideband) into something acceptable to the Advanced Television Systems Committee, which is slated to pick a standard in the first half of 2009. The two hope to have the new format, which would deliver over-the-air local television, developed later this year. Release

For now, North American mobile TV users are stuck in a loop between multiple standards, limited services and limited handsets, which in turn limits the chances that mobile TV will really take off here any time soon.