With all these exciting new gadgets set to revolutionise TV viewing in our lounges I’ve completely neglected to mention that TV in the digital age has moved expanded to different platforms and spaces.
Mobile TV services are being launched in countries all over the world (two new articles covering such launches appeared on Google news within 30 minutes of starting this article!), as more and more people turn to mobile phones for their TV fix.
A study released yesterday by Infonetics Research predicts that 397 million mobile video phones will sell world wide in 2013, creating a market worth tens of billions of dollars. The number of mobile video subscribers hit 41 million worldwide in 2008 and is expected to grow nearly 10-fold by the end of 2013.
Courtesy of Infonetics.
Other key findings were that a primary driver for mobile video adoption is access to live sporting events, primarily soccer, cricket and motor sports. Asia Pacific is dubbed the “mobile video titan” with the highest volume of sales, while Nokia is the leader in worldwide DVB-H phone revenue market share.
Mobile phone TV is not only a case of transferring normal TV onto a new platform, although there are services like FloTV which have done just that. FloTV is an American mobile TV provider that operates like a normal broadcast service with scheduled programming on a variety of channels. Subscribers can view a range of live or time-shifted content (news, sports, series and music) just like normal TV.
The inclusion of time-shifted programming is very important. No one is going to stop what they’re doing and whip out their phone just because something cool is airing on mobile TV (except perhaps for new episodes of Grey’s). In fact, models like FloTV may fail completely with the increasing availability of various applications which allow viewers to choose their own content to be consumed at their own convenience.
Mobile TV or mobile video?
Essentially this is what Andrew Bud, Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum – a London-based trade association for the mobile media industry – refers to when he makes the distinction between mobile video and mobile TV. In an interview with Reuters Bud said:
“Mobile TV is all about real-time, linear transmission … where the timing of the programming was set by the broadcaster and the consumer would dip in and dip out…mobile video is much more about video-on-demand. It gives the consumer much more freedom. It’s also a little less stressful on the mobile networks.”
Mobile TV works for important not-to-be-missed events. FloTV’s viewership shot up by 80% on the day of Michael Jackson’s memorial service, making it one of the service’s biggest viewing days on record. However old broadcasters still committed to the traditional broadcast model will experience problems.
The average viewer on the average day in the digital age does not want to be told what, when and where to watch. Would you not just love a video-on-demand application by the likes of Apple, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson that would allow you to catch up on the latest news (at Seattle Grace) while on a long journey or waiting in a queue?
Right here, right now...or whenever you please.
The mobile TV market is also steadily growing in South Africa, so much so that, according to Die Burger, SABC is looking to make up some of its embarrassing R839 million debt by introducing mobile TV licence fees. This will be a substantial source of income, particularly during next year’s Soccer World Cup where millions of South Africans and foreign visitors are expected to watch matches and highlights on their mobile phones.
Does this mean we can look forward to another amusing “Pay your mobile TV licence, it’s the right thing to do!” campaign? Excellent.
For more on this and other mobile matters read my mobile guru colleague’s blog: Mobile Takeover.
