Mobile TV needs magnification
- Article 3 of 7
- iSight, January 2006
Mobile telephones will not move fully into the live TV market until the standards are agreed and the business models clarified.
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Of the two standards, DVB-H also has the most support from handset manufacturers. Motorola, Sagem and BenQ have all demonstrated DVB-H handsets, as has Nokia.
Nokia’s decision is likely to be key. It has already promised to roll out DVB-H across all its products and Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice-president of Nokia, has stated on the record that T-DMB support will not be forthcoming.
As a result, says Dibcom’s Levy, most regions are likely to adopt DVB-H. “It’s more standardised, it’s solved more of the technical issues thrown up, it’s being used in more trials and there are more and more DVB-H phones being produced.”
TV TRIALS
Only one major trial has used T-DMB. South Korea tested it during 2005 in Seoul and plans to offer free services in 2006. A second trial in Germany will launch in 2006 and is set to last two years. Smaller trials are planned or are ongoing in France, Germany and the UK. In contrast, DVB-H trials are already underway in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, the US and the UK, with more scheduled for2006. Switzerland, Indonesia, Thailand, Germany and Russia are all set to deploy DVB-Hin 2006 as well.
The biggest DVB-H trial occurred in Finland in 2005. It involved 500 people in Helsinki and gave access to national TV as well as others like CNN and Euronews. In general, users spent approximately 20 minutes a day watching mobile TV, although more active users watched 30 to 40 minutes per session.
Nearly half said they were willing to pay for the service in the future. Members paid €4.90 a month, although half thought €10 was a reasonable charge, preferring a fixed-priced model for the most part. Some were interested in a pay-per-view model for buying access to specific content such as football matches.
CONSUMER RESISTANCE
However, the trial did not highlight some of the consumer resistance to mobile TV. While those that used it did admit to liking it, other research suggests a majority of consumers are unwilling even to try it.
Online researcher Entertainment Media Research found that 70% of UK consumers have no interest in watching TV on their mobile phones, citing poor quality and high prices as deterrents. Analyst firm Forrester found that only 5% of European consumers would look for TV functions in a new phone. Peter Gardner, communications sector partner at 3i, has a pragmatic view. “Our belief is that TV on the handset will be a tick list item, like a camera or a colour screen, which is why we invested in Dibcom.”
Network and content providers therefore need to make mobile TV a must-have, offering unique content, in addition to existing TV channels. Some already have such plans: Verizon will offer specially created episodes of the hit TV show Lost in 2006, an improvement on the one-minute 24 ‘mobisodes’ offered by Fox in 2005.
In conjunction with that approach, the portability and interoperability offered by the iPod needs to be embraced by the mobile TV world, says Jim Olson, CEO of SkyStream, a supplier of Internet Protocol (IP) video delivery hardware. “Consumers are really excited by that – by being able to visit relatives, show them their videos and play them their music, whether it’s on a stereo, a computer or a TV.”
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