Mobile TV in a bit of a turmoil

Michael Hedges April 24, 2008

A funny thing happened to mobile TV on the way to the marketplace. While experts still believe it will bring in € billions…someday…Europe and North America will need to look to Asia. It’s another media trend moving East to West.

Mobile TV has captured the imaginations of Asian media users. Everywhere else, the idea gets (mostly) blank stares. Cost is certainly one reason. So is content. Japanese and South Korean can access mobile TV without paying a subscription fee. This is not exactly what the big mobile operators had in mind.

Different standards – the digital systems through which content can be moved to your cellphone – across different regions are “here to stay,” says ABI Research in a report.

For Europe, EU Info Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding disagrees. Citing the successful adoption of the European system GSM for mobile telephony Commissioner Reding has been fighting for a single European standard DVB-H for mobile TV. Regulators in the UK and Germany disagree. Experts and analysts wonder aloud if setting a single standard before spectrum questions are settled makes sense.

DVB-H, promoted by Nokia, may or may not be the de facto mobile TV standard in Europe and MediaFLO, used by Verizon and AT&T, may or may not be the de facto standard in the US. DMB, a European standard favored by broadcasters, has a significant foothold in Asia. And China Mobile, in potentially the worlds biggest single market, is rolling out a wireless mobile standard all their own.

Content producers, mostly broadcasters and film producers, have also been hoping the mobile TV revolution would bring extra cash, thinking real people will sit and stare at the tiny screen for a TV episode or feature film while paying by the nano-second. Sports highlights, short video clips, continue to be hyped in Europe, attracting very little attention from the paying customer. Already mobile telcos are buying rights to major events.

European mobile phone operators are starting to get their hands around the idea of flat rate pricing, mobile TV access without an additional subscription fee. Mobile bosses (mostly) nodded their heads in agreement at the London Mobile TV World Summit. Channel 4 (UK) saw one-quarter of their mobile content subscribers cancel because of ‘bill shock.’ And, of course, they see salvation (i.e. to salivate) in advertising. Another Summit participant observed, “If content is free online then we cannot start charging for it on mobile.”

M:Metrics reported that more than one-quarter of 13 to 17 year old boys in Western Europe “consumer mobile media,” download stuff, and these kids are a major target for advertisers. "Reaching the 18 to 34-year-old age demographic is a real challenge to advertisers, as this group is spending less time consuming print and broadcast media," wrote Paul Goode, one of the reports’ authors.

Millward Brown advises marketers that mobile media behavior is significantly different from PC/laptop browsing.  And Universal McCann pointed out that European and North American new media consumers tend to be far more passive, voyeurs, they say, while Asians like to play with bits and pieces of content they grab on the mobile phone and send something totally new to their friends.

"We have seen that there are multiple segments who are not interested in the broadcasting, but rather in downloads,” said Nokia’s Niklas Savander at a Helsinki conference earlier this month. "It's a bit in a turmoil."

We're Going Mobile - but where are we going? - ftm Knowledge file

Mobile TV, mobile radio, mobile internet in Europe, Asia and the US. What's real and what's not. While mobile media investment soars where are the consumers? 81 pages PDF (November 2007)
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