Reuters headlines its article, “Apps a nail in coffin of broadcast mobile TV,” suggesting that cellular users prefer to pick and chose individual TV programs/channels and movies rather than accepting the traditional broadcast TV model with bundles of programs.
The article sees the future for mobile TV as downloading applications for specific video services, such as the apps available via Livestation (see below).
Reuters notes that a survey by KPMG and the Mobile Entertainment Forum showed almost 40 percent of consumers had watched video on their handsets, and that 52 percent said the experience was “satisfying” compared to 38 percent of a much smaller number of consumers who had tried broadcast mobile TV.
What’s interesting to me is that only about half of the consumers had a satisfying experience downloading videos, which isn’t a particularly impressive number. It’s not a statistic to be proud of.
Testing options
Reuters reports that handset manufacturers are testing different options. For example, Samsung and Sony Ericsson are offering full length movies, Apple’s iPhone can download TV shows (and movies) and Nokia is working with the creator of the TV program “Heroes” to produce a cellular project for launch this summer on the Ovi Store.
Ben Wood, the research director at CCS Insight, says, “Old-fashioned broadcasters who are wedded to the old broadcast model have the biggest challenge because those days are over; consumers expect their favorite content when they want it, on whatever platform is most convenient — TV, PC or a mobile phone."
If this concept is indeed valid — and it remains to be seen — it doesn’t bode well for, as an example, Qualcomm’s FLO TV, which broadcasts regular TV programs on handsets, although not necessarily at the same times they are broadcast on the networks.
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