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| 31 May 2007 10:08:00 am |
 What is driving mobile TV? |
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It was in August 2005 when Nokia first asked people who had experienced a DVB-H mobile TV trial what they thought of it. It turned out that those people were amazed. They had found a cure for boredom.
And effectively, that is the biggest driver for mobile TV, and its usage pattern, which shows in the four or five trials that have surveyed their customers. This is particularly noteworthy in public trials in Finland, the UK, and France and the live volume services in Italy, Korea and Japan, with new prime times occurring in journey time to work, in work breaks and in early evening post work, and also later in the home.
About 13% of people asked in surveys what they thought of streaming TV on a mobile would say 'it might take off', while in broadcast services which offer up to four times the resolution, around 60% say 'We would buy it', or 'It will take off'.
People ask what are the drivers for mobile TV, and what is obvious is that quality video on the move was always the driver because it will break into the chunks of boredom that pepper our work days, but only if the quality is sufficiently good that consumers can watch it without getting a headache or eyestrain.
When Nokia first announced the results of its Finland survey it showed that 41% of trial participants were happy to pay for mobile TV services, at $12 a month and that 58% said that they believed broadcast mobile TV services would be popular.
And they watched their usual programs, not 'mobisodes'. These were national channels including drama, sports and news programming. Given that the national sport of Finland is ice hockey, these people found the service had the resolution not only to watch the scores in the corner of the screen, but they could see the tiny puck flying around the ice at incredible speeds. The trial was on while the Ice Hockey World cup was in progress and that was one of the major viewing experiences, along with Formula One car racing and the UEFA Cup Champions League soccer.
They went from a standing start to watching 20 minutes a day across the pilot viewers, and some watched an enormous amount of mobile TV, in multiple 30 or 40 minutes chunks each day.
Furthermore, when viewers begin to see DVR applications on their handset throughout 2008 and beyond, the problems with TV schedules should diminish. At present the widespread use of simulcast - showing the same channels that are currently on TV - means that the 8.00 am slot is no longer just for housewives and schoolchildren, but is just as likely to be watched by businessmen on the way to work. With the DVR, the businessman will just set his phone DVR to record when he sets his alarm clock, and watch prime time TV in the morning.
Of course, there have been problems with early experiments. The Koreans, with two working systems, have only managed to get 3 million customers on their mobile TV system in a country of 48 million people. However, considering that the two competing services are locked in a political rivalry that sees one without good distribution channels and the other without good content, one realises that mobile TV services here are a success in spite of themselves.
In Italy around 300 000 customers have bought mobile TV in six months out of a population of the 6,8 million existing customers of the operator 3 Italia. This means a penetration of almost 5% in 6 months.
Boredom is the driver for mobile TV, but poor execution at the network, establishment of market channels and content availability are all that is holding it back. |
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Posted By : Admin
| Category : Mobile TV |  Comments[0] |  Trackbacks [0]
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| 31 May 2007 10:05:53 am |
| MMobile TV gets legs for growth |
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Mobile TV subscribers will mushroom around the globe over the next five years, according to the latest study from London-based market analyst Datamonitor.
The number of mobile broadcast TV subs is predicted to grow from a mere 4.4 million today to an estimated 156 million by the end of 2012.
However, the author of "Opportunities in the Mobile Broadcast TV Market, 2006-2012" noted that while mobile broadcast TV is continually highlighted as the next big thing, considerable hurdles need to be overcome.
"There are about 4.4 million mobile broadcast TV subscribers globally and at that, split just between a handful of countries. This subscriber base will grow to 65.6 million in 2010 and more than double to an estimated 155.6 million by 2012 -- a compound annual growth rate of 66," said Chris Khouri, associate media and broadcasting analyst with Datamonitor and author of the study.
Khouri went on to say that consumer education, technological fragmentation and content adaptation will have to be addressed before mass adoption can take place.
Datamonitor expects the Asia-Pacific region to have 76 million subscribers by 2012. Europe will have the second largest sub base with an estimated 43 million by 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 102% from 2006. This high growth rate is directly attributable to the predicted pan-European push for mobile broadcast TV between 2009 and 2012.
North America is expected to have a subscriber base of 36 million.
Pricing models for mobile broadcast TV vary by region, with some service providers opting for a free-to-air service. Most mobile operators, however, would be looking to charge $8-$12 per month for a mobile broadcast service. In most Western European and North American regions, subscription models are expected to be the dominant business model at first.
And as is already clear, mobile broadcast solutions won't be a significant revenue generator until consumers see value in adopting the service.
Moreover, the move toward revenue-generating advertising models for mobile broadcast TV has an unquestionably long way to go. The catalyst for this shift is ensuring that both a return on initial investment has been met and that there is a large enough subscriber base to warrant the transition. |
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Posted By : Admin
| Category : Mobile TV | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [0]
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| 10 May 2007 07:23:06 am |
| Mobile TV leading in Mobile Content. Mobile TV rocks |
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It is the newest of all mobile content offerings – Mobile TV – that looks set to emerge as the strongest performer globally, delivering €4.7bn of revenue from 140 million subscribers by 2011. The new broadcast services, launched in only a handful of markets, are growing rapidly. For instance, Unicast services, delivered over existing 3G networks, have begun to generate real revenues in Europe.
More links for Mobile TV:
Mobile TV coming of age
Hassles for handsets on Mobile TV
Mobile TV. News on the new Mobile TV or Television for Mobile as it is sometimes called. Mobile TV is set to be the biggest thing to happen to TV and Mobile Phones for decades. |
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Posted By : Admin
| Category : Mobile TV | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [0]
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