Is digital switchover a gift to mobile TV?

Michael Hedges February 12, 2009

Flogging mobile TV as the next big thing knows no limit. Mobile TV could be a thing, certainly not the next, likely not big. Yet, forecasters are dutifully projecting inevitable – yet increasingly distant – success.

Digital switchover will be a gift to mobile TV, says ABI Research in a report on the mobile TV market (February 10). A half billion “viewers and subscribers” may arrive by 2013, if the all the signs align properly. “As 2009 progresses, signs of economic optimism may emerge, and allow the fledgling industry to establish a foothold before the holiday shopping season,” they say. (Read the ABI Research release here)

Every technology-based media ‘solution’ bases its forthcoming ‘success’ on ‘economic optimism.’ If only consumers – and technology sellers - had all the money they want all sorts of great new things would be flying off the shelves, so to speak. Economic optimism may be in short supply in 2009, consumers’ money shorter.

ABI analyst Jeff Orr sees broadcasters offering “extensions” on mobile devices. For every major sporting event of this century mobile TV services have been touted as ready to break through only to disappoint. Sports highlights – very logically – should have been big hits. Television broadcasters and mobile phone networks, sometimes together and sometimes independently, keep looking for mobile TV content to drive a market.

Asian markets are light years ahead of Europe and North America in mobile TV development. So pervasive is mobile TV in Japan and South Korea it is disingenuous to refer to the platform as in development. It’s developed. It’s popular. It’s everywhere. It’s cheap. One – just one – barrier to mobile TV in Europe is the astronomical cost to consumers. Mobile phone operators cling to the hope that content trumps price in discretionary spending.

Turner Broadcasting just announced (February 12) the launch of the Cartoon Network on Hong Kong’s CSL mobile network. China Mobile will begin offering Shanghai customers seven mobile TV programs in March for €2.25 per month.

For mobile TV to reach whatever potential is possible to make all that investment pay off, ABI’s Orr hints that a device correction might be necessary. “Mobile TV viewing will not solely be on cellular handsets,” he says. I believe that once the content is available and the services launched, mobile TV will enable more classes of mobile devices that are natural fits for mobile entertainment.”

Handset manufacturers continue to support mobile TV, at least the idea. And their current fixation on smarter and smarter smartphones certainly enables more, brighter and faster video retrieval. But handset makers are extraordinarily well tuned in to consumers; the product life of a mobile handset is about nine months. Their learning shows mobile users preferring short bursts, short text, quick clips, instant messages. It is no surprise that Facebook’s features are adapting to the mobile platform.

Mobile TV will have applications. Mobile operator 3 Australia is offering Chinese (Taiwan) TV in a subscription package for AU$ 4 (€ 2) per month. Where capacities are large and infrastructures are new mobile operators can offer a wide variety of services, particularly those with very low content costs.

The equation changes as content and application trumps platform. No better example of platform resistance is the minimal take-up of DAB radio despite the investment. As device manufacturers become platform agnostic – chips are just chips – distribution will become even more price sensitive. And transitional technologies will fade.

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!