Prospects encourage telecom companies to sink money into mobile entertainment

TV on the move is being pushed as the next "must-have" portable entertainment accessory by telecom companies. The only snag is that while it is proving a hit in Asia, it is not taking off as fast elsewhere as some had predicted.

With so much money and potential new audiences at stake, it was not surprising, therefore, that the future of mobile entertainment was a red-hot topic at the influential MIPTV featuring MILIA audiovisual trade show here earlier this month.

Packed high-level brainstorming sessions learnt that recent key mobile television trials in Europe all show that people are happy to watch TV on the tinier mobile screens.

Maximum daily consumption, however, was only around 20 minutes, though the trials in France, Spain and Britain did reveal that more than half of those participating would be happy to pay for their daily mobile TV fix.

The problem is that despite all the mobile hype around the globe, it is still early days for the fledgling mobile sector.

"We believe there is a huge opportunity for mobile TV but the medium is still in its infancy," British Vodafone's Andrew Stalbow pointed out to conference participants.

No one knows for sure yet what type of content viewers really want to watch or how long they will spend on the smaller screens.

But with 2 billion mobile phones in use around the world today and revenues from mobile content forecast to hit US$42.3 billion by 2010, the stakes are high.

Optimism was also in the air during the five-day show, stoked by the results of market research.

One recent study by eMarketer predicts that the number of people watching TV on their mobile phones in the United States, Europe and Asia will hit the 60 million mark by 2009.

These prospects have encouraged telecom companies to sink a lot of money into such projects.

In Europe, Britain and France are leading the move into providing live TV broadcasts to mobile phone users with Germany planning to test its markets in the next few months.

But it is the digital powerhouses in Asia that are at the forefront of this mobile revolution, so there was huge interest here in what is happening on the other side of the world.

South Korea launched the world's first commercial mobile TV service last May and now has some 44,000 subscribers who pay US$13 per month to receive it.

Peak viewing hours with users are proving to be morning and evening commuting times, over lunch breaks and late at night, Hoekyun Ahn of TU Media revealed.

The possibility to watch live TV programmes is drawing younger subscribers. But although users notch up 55 minutes viewing every day, just over 40 minutes of that is on video channels, Ahn said.

These results mean the company, owned by leading mobile provider SK Telecom, is "not quite sure that everyone really wants mobile TV," he concluded.

Takeshi Natsuno, who has spearheaded Japanese phone giant NTT DoCoMo's digital drive, has no such doubts. Mobile TV is already here and happening, he enthused.

About 40,000 NTT DoCoMo customers are already using the new TV service that has just launched in Japan. "But this is still nothing compared to our subscriber base," he underlined.

One of the most promising markets is the vast Chinese one.

Different peak viewing times and more male-orientated audiences are not the only new change the mobile industries have to come to grips with.

There are also technical hurdles as countries are using different broadcasting standards around the globe.

"There is a big technological standards debate raging around the world," said Tabitha Elwes, of Britain's Spectrum Strategy Consultants.

Some companies are also hedging their bets.

These will be on the mobile phones, the larger "bag-sized" screens and the latest "nomad TV" devices. A leader in the so-called "nomad" TV technology is US-based Sling Media.

Its new SlingPlayer Mobile, which has not yet been launched, will allow TV fans to carry their home TV signal with them by redirecting it to a Windows mobile-based 3G device.

Perhaps that will turn out to be the ultimate home-from-home TV experience in an increasingly mobile world.

Source:China Daily