With So Many Programmers Making Plans for Mobile Phone Television Is That What Users Actually Want? Well, Actually, No

As part of its American Life Project by the Pew Research Center’s Pew Internet Americans were asked what features they would like to add to their mobile phones, and the clear winner – 47% of those questioned – said they wanted maps.

Next most popular feature requested was instant messaging (38%) followed by those who wanted email and that their phones could be used to conduct searches for shares price, the weather etc., (24%). Only 2% said they actually watch mobile video or TV, although 14% said they would like to.

Breaking down the demographics and its obvious that TV watching on the mobile is something that appeals to the young. For those aged 18-29, 23% of respondents said they wanted to watch mobile TV, but in the 30-49 bracket it was only 15%, just 4% for those aged between 50 – 64 and 6% for the over 65s.

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Keeping in mind that it is the young who favor video on the mobiles it should come as no surprise that the world’s largest content provider for mobile phones are the MTV networks

MTV now works with 63 providers globally that have access to more than 1 billion cell phones, including 12 mobile TV channels across its various brands in 10 European countries. It claims to telecast on 111 channels and has 94 websites reaching more than 440 million households in 167 countries worldwide. Besides programming MTV is also getting onto the ring tone business.

MTV Networks Music President Van Toffler has no doubt there is money to be made on the mobile phone if that programming is targeted to the right audience in the right way. "Our audience is responding in droves to our mobile programming. They have a personal relationship with our brands and they increasingly want to consume our content on the handset, the new 'holy grail' of electronic devices," he told a recent wireless convention in Las Vegas.

He pointed out that global youth spend about $16 billion on music annually, but they spend eight times that much on their phones.

MTV Networks in March streamed nearly 2.5 million videos cross-carrier, an all-time high, Toffler reported, adding that the number is growing by nearly 40 per cent month-to-month for the first three months of 2006.

And its not just music videos. MTV has success also with comedy segments, user-generated content, scenes from television shows, 'after shows' developed exclusively for mobile, never- before-seen outtakes, and short art breaks, also known as "sharts," featuring animated and live-action segments.

"The wireless platform is as important to us as television and computer screens. As soon as we start developing a new concept, we think beyond the television. We think of how that idea can live on broadband and mobile," he said.

And in a unique experiment, MTV has premiered a program via mobile phone before it makes its television debut. Six half-hour episodes of Barrio 19 launched this week on mobile TV outlets in Europe although the program will not premier on television until May 7.

It will be interesting to see in the UK how well MTV programming does against a newcomer – ITN Multimedia that has launched a streamed 24-hour news channel and a weather channel on Vodaphone mobile TV. Breaking news will likely be a winner, but regularly scheduled news? The cable news networks learned long ago that when there are no breaking stories then ratings tend to be low, but a breaking news story makes for a whole new ballgame, and the same will likely be true on the mobile, too.. The two new channels are in addition to ITN’s existing programs of news bulletins, entertainment news and soap opera updates on Vodaphone.

And Vodaphone, in a real bid to kick start mobile television viewing is offering for just €5 broadcasts of all 64 FIFA World Cup matches in June and July. The digital video images will be especially edited for mobile phone optimization.

If that doesn’t attract sports enthusiasts to mobile TV services, then nothing will.

With So Many Programmers Making Plans for Mobile Phone Television Is That What Users Actually Want? Well, Actually, No – What They Really Want Are Maps.

Ask Americans the one feature they would like on their mobile phone and the answer is not video, music, audio or the like. What they really want, according to a recent survey, are maps. Not exactly what Hollywood and other program makers wanted to hear.