LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Broadcast and Mobile Multimedia, a new strategic report from Informa Telecoms & Media, said Tuesday that it predicts that there will be 124.8 million broadcast mobile TV users worldwide by 2010, with an inflection point expected in 2009 as network rollout and device availability allow for the market to reach some level of critical mass.
For the next few years, the market will be dominated by sales of broadcast devices from the strongholds of South Korea and Japan, but by 2010, the markets of the U.S., China and Europe will have grown. In terms of devices, the market is forecast to grow from a total of 0.13 million units in 2005 to 83.5 million by 2010. In comparison with mobile video-capable phones, broadcast handset sales will be outstripped by almost 5-to-1 by 2010.
Whilst the mobile TV industry is beginning to generate interest from many sectors of the mobile and broadcast industries, including mobile operators, handset vendors, broadcasters and content providers, there are still a number of issues and problems that need to be resolved. Amongst the biggest hurdles are regulation, capacity and spectrum planning. But at the heart of the mobile TV industry is the tussle between broadcast and cellular networks to find the optimum solution for all players to benefit in an extremely complex business model. The degree to which these networks will become either competitive or complementary will ultimately determine the fate of market.
The success is also dependent on the availability of desirable, popular content to the end user which will determine, to a large extent, how fast consumers adopt the services and devices. There is a definite need for the industry to decide what formats will work for users while they are on the move and what services will be attractive to mobile subscribers, bearing in mind current viewing habits. This is further dependent on the availability of quality handsets, providing users with a large high resolution colour display, a good user interface, and lasting battery life.
In the cellular space, through mobile operator offerings over data networks, currently the most popular services for cellular TV are streaming and downloading video clips. Although live TV is available over some networks, this type of service is not currently widely used. However, to provide an adequate mobile TV service, the implementation of 3G appears to be the minimum requirement as streaming is becoming the preferred method of consuming content. The use of 3G networks, however, does have bandwidth and capacity issues as it is not a broadcast technology, but such services could provide valuable insight into the use of mobile TV by customers, particularly with the expected arrival of broadcast mobile television services in Europe next year and the advent of the World Cup in Germany.
But the growth of 3G and the collaboration between players are crucial to leverage on the potential for interactive TV services, which although being somewhat lacklustre in the digital TV arena has the potential to be a real driver behind mobile TV services and revenue generation. Using the mobile channel as an interactive return channel allows for, in particular, interactive voting from programmes such as reality TV shows (e.g. Big Brother). This has the potential to turn the relatively unsuccessful 'red-button' access of traditional TV into a fruitful service addition to all in the mobile space.
It cannot be disputed that in many major markets worldwide TV is a large part of many peoples' daily lives and mobile subscriber penetration in a number of markets has reached, if not even surpassed, a high saturation level. It owes much to these two reasons, and their subsequent convergence, that broadcast mobile TV has undoubted potential, with interactive TV and the extended coverage of advertising at the forefront of that success.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 31st May 2005
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/13000.php