stories filed under: "mobile tv"
Now, It's The Next World Cup That Will Make Mobile TV A Success
from the still-waiting dept
Perhaps the most notable thing about mobile TV is how it's been right on the cusp of huge market success (if you believe its cheerleaders) for about five years. The fact remains that mobile TV isn't popular, and people just don't seem interested. But don't worry: the 2010 World Cup will make mobile TV popular, at least in Africa, says an exec from Nokia Siemens. Of course, that's the same thing people said before the Beijing Olympics, before the Euro 2008 soccer tournament, and before the last World Cup in 2006. What's different this time around? Apparently the fact that it's being held in South Africa will drive mobile TV adoption on the continent -- but in markets like Kenya, where the average monthly mobile spend is $4-$7, it's still hard to see much future for the services.Mobile TV Backers Figuring Out That People Don't Want To Pay For It
from the maybe-next-year dept
For several years, companies pushing mobile TV services have been saying an explosion in their popularity is just around the corner. But consumer uptake has been tepid, as their business model of charging a monthly fee for linear broadcast video that can't be time-shifted or recorded -- you know, the same kind of TV people are shifting away from in their living rooms -- hasn't struck a chord. Even in markets like Korea and Japan, often talked about as some of the most advanced mobile markets in the world, people have shied away from paid mobile TV services. So after a few years of not really going anywhere, mobile TV companies are starting to think that maybe they should start thinking about changing their business model (via Engadget) from a subscription-based service to an ad-supported one. Perhaps that's a start, but just as important as the charge to end users is the service offering: trying to force users back to a schedule-based broadcast system is always going to be an uphill battle in an on-demand world.Filed Under: business models, mobile tv
Once Again: People Just Aren't That Interested In Mobile TV
from the no,-really,-we-swear dept
For years and years we've wondered why various companies were spending billions on building mobile TV systems that simply mimic traditional broadcast TV to mobile phones. In an age of time shifting and place shifting there's little reason for a mobile broadcast TV system that's separate from your other ways of accessing television. People don't want to have to buy into a whole different (expensive) mobile subscription service when they already have a cable subscription at home which they can save via their TiVo. And, if they really want to access it on the go, they can just pick up a Slingbox and not have to pay for an entirely separate subscription. But that hasn't stopped billions from being poured into various mobile TV systems, even though pretty much every test shows very little interest in paying for mobile TV.Of course, sometimes when we talk about this, people tell us that the experiences in Asia -- specifically Korea and Japan -- show that there really is a market for fee-based mobile broadcast TV. Turns out that's not true. A new study in Korea points out that the highly touted mobile broadcast system there gets very, very little usage. In the meantime, Toshiba is backing off plans to offer a fee-based mobile TV subscription service in Japan. So much for those "success" stories.
What's really stunning about this is that it wasn't hard to predict that this would happen years ago, before billions were wasted on such systems. None of this means that video alone isn't an interesting space in the mobile market, but it has to be allowing users to access what video they want -- not taking us back in time to an old live broadcast system, and adding yet another subscription fee for the privilege.
TV Stations About To Make A Bad Bet On Mobile Broadcast TV
from the let's-see-how-that-works dept
Every few months over the past few years, we've heard stories about how some companies somewhere were betting on people watching broadcast television on their mobiles. The problem, however, is that it's always been companies betting on the phenomenon -- and not users clamoring for it. And, despite wild predictions from analyst firms who sell their reports to eager companies who want to convince their investors that something big is coming, almost every real world test has shown that people just aren't that interested in watching broadcast TV on their mobile phones. Sure, there are some people who will watch it, but two things that don't seem to go together all that well are "broadcast television" and "being mobile." Broadcast television is a "lean back" technology that you watch when you can sit back and relax. That generally doesn't fit with being mobile. Yet, despite all of these problems, it seems that a bunch of television networks are, once again, betting that people will want to access broadcast television from their mobile phones, despite little evidence to support that notion. A lot of money is going to get spent (and lost) before all of these companies realize they should have focused on offering something that people actually want.Filed Under: distribution, mobile tv, television networks
