Reiter's Mobile TV Report

SPB Software offers no-subscription Android mobile TV for free or $9.95 app

SPB Software is offering two mobile television services, SPB TV — without a monthly subscription fee — for Android phones, the company says. 

One service, which requires buying a $9.95 application, offers more than 100 mobile TV channels in more than 20 languages.  The second service is completely free, but offers a limited number of channels.

SPB TV includes a picture-in-picture mode (see below), calendar reminders for upcoming shows and a channel guide displaying a week of programs.  SPB Software is compatible with Android phones running version 1.5 of the operating system and with an HVGA screen.

The service works with 3G and WiFi connections.  The company previously released mobile TV products for Windows Mobile and Symbian handsets.

Coincidentally, next week I hope to be getting an Android phone from T-Mobile to test.  Although T-Mobile isn’t sending it because of SPB TV, I certainly hope to try it, and will report my experience.

Reuters reports users prefer mobile video apps, not broadcast TV

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.

Mobision TV in Iraq looks to offer mobile TV in other countries

Mobision TV (see left), which launched mobile television service in Iraq in May (as I’ve written), would like to expand its business to other countries, according to Andre Abi-Nassif, the senior vice president of Mobision and deputy general manager of Alsumaria TV, the satellite TV network providing content to its Mobision venture.

Abi-Nassif e-mailed me that Mobision is ready to develop mobile TV services to provide up to 20 channels, including subscription management using SMS, for DVB-H systems.  In Iraq, Mobision offers about 20 channels, requires a Mobision-supplied microSD card and sells the service with several prepaid plans.

Video/porn downloads congest Japanese cellular networks, forcing data caps

The huge amount of bandwidth used by Japanese cellular subscribers downloading so much video, including, apparently, lots of porn, is forcing Japan’s cellular operators to implement bandwidth caps on their formerly unlimited data plans, according to Reuters.

The article says because of network congestion, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have to impose limits on their heaviest users, and Softbank, the third largest Japanese operator, is considering data usage limits.  Because of privacy regulations, the cellular operators say they don’t know what videos their subscribers are downloading, but they will admit porn probably is one category, Reuters reports.

However, major Japanese porn Web sites, such as Soft on Demand (see below), aren’t reticent about saying that downloads to cellular phones are increasing, and the market is still in the early stages.  Hirotaka Ishimori, the head of Soft on Demand’s online division, says revenues from the company’s cellular site — which offers free sample videos and DVD sales — is 15 million yen ($161,235) a month.

Cellular porn to increase dramatically

Reuters says, “Global revenue from pornography on mobile devices will more than double to $4.9 billion in the five years to 2013, while music sales will grow by about a third, said Juniper [Research], which provides global research on the telecommunication industry and includes Finland’s Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, Apple and Microsoft Corp. among its clients.”

Cellular subscribers in the United States who look for porn videos to download can find it, although it doesn’t seem to be a major problem for U.S. operators.  At least, they aren’t talking about it; it’s an embarrassment.

In 2001 I moderated and put together for the CTIA’s Wireless annual conference what might have been the first panel in the country to discuss the potential problems of porn in the U.S.  The panel sparked CNET News to write about the subject before the meeting was held.

Digital Production - Middle East reports on mobile TV in Middle East

Digital Production – Middle East has published a detailed article about developing mobile television content in the Middle East.  The article discusses such companies as CNBC Arabia, production and distribution company A2 Avalon and content aggregator Info2Cell.

I’m sorry, but I don’t have time to write more about it.  If you’re interested in mobile TV content development, especially in the Middle East, it’s very well worth reading.

Iraq's Mobision mobile TV offers CNN, replaces two channels with Art Sports

Iraq’s mobile television offering, Mobision TV, which launched last month, has added CNN, and substituted Art Sports 5 and 6 for Star Movies and National Geographic, according to Andre Abi-Nassif, senior vice president of Mobision.

Abi-Nassif read my article about Mobision and was nice enough to send me an e-mail with the updated information.  Thank you!

He writes that the Star Movies and National Geographic channels were replaced because of rights issues.

As I wrote late last month, Mobision offers some 20 channels using the DVB-H mobile TV protocol.  The service requires a Mobision microSD card and is based on prepaid cards with one month, three months and one year prices.

MLB.com streams baseball to iPhone, iPod, maybe sparking new business model

MLB.com will begin live streaming select baseball games to the Apple iPhone 3G S and iPod touch (incorporating the new OS 3.0) via its existing $9.99 At Bat 2009 application (see below), reports The New York Times.  But one of the most interesting aspects is the possibility it will spark a new business model for cellular applications, as discussed by ReadWriteWeb.

The MLB.com At Bat application will enable iPhone and touch users to view two free non-local games — chosen by MLB — every day.  Local games will be blacked out.

Additional games will be available as the season progresses, and it’s assumed that some games will require a fee.  The games may be viewed via WiFi or AT&T’s 3G network, which is interesting because AT&T and Apple have forbidden SlingPlayer Mobile from streaming videos from home computers to the iPhone via 3G; only WiFi streaming is allowed.

Pay-for statistics business model?

Marshall Kirkpatrick, the vice president of content creation and the lead writer at ReadWriteWeb (one of my favorite weblogs), writes that At Bat 2009 could herald a new business model where people would be willing to pay for statistics and other data — just as MLB.com offers a huge amount of statistical information about baseball games as part of its cellular application.

MLB.com At Bat 2009 offers such statistics as real-time scores, pitch-by-pitch (see top right), box scores and, game summaries.

Kirkpatrick writes, “The iPhone and Android platforms are brilliant for scrolling and zooming through layers of data in ways that print, TV and radio could only dream of.  Mobile, touchscreen and hand-held beats a Web page on the desktop computer too for data visualization.”

Mobile TV more than just “TV”

I’ve written previously about new ways to enhance value for mobile TV.  So far, mobile TV “innovation” mostly revolves around made-for-cellular programs, rather than much video + data integration.

Using SMS to vote for reality TV performers is about the best cellular operators and content providers have been able to come up with.  In other words, not much.

We’re seeing the television industry beginning to offer sets with Ethernet ports and widgets from Yahoo for accessing Web content (see below), as I’ve written in my Internet Evolution column.

Unlike TVs, cellular phones are made for data, duh.  It’s a natural device for integrating data with all type of videos.

SNL Kagan's top mobile TV firms: ESPN, MobiTV, MTV, CNN, Comedy Central

The research firm SNL Kagan says the five top mobile television firms, based on revenues in 2008, are:  ESPN, $38.4 million; MobiTV, $23.8 million; MTV Mobile, $22.4 million; CNN, $22 million and Comedy Central, $20 million, according to mocoNews.net.

SNL Kagan estimates the top 18 video providers and aggregators generated revenues in 2008 of $306 million, which will grow 17 percent to $359 million in 2009, including subscriptions, one-time fees and advertising within videos.  MocoNews.net says — realistically — “The figures have a sobering affect on other estimates that put revenues — albeit internationally — easily into the billions.”

Based on the SNL Kagan figures, ESPN, MobiTV and MTV were the fastest growing mobile TV ventures in 2008, although other firms will grow faster this year.  GoTV’s revenues will increase 56 percent, and Viva Vision and Cartoon Network will each increase 30 percent, mocoNews.net writes.

Top mobile TV aggregators

The top aggregator in 2008 was MobiTV with 4.4 million subscribers.  (A few days ago MobiTV said it had more than 7 million subscribers.)  There seems to be a bit of a mistake — mocoNews.net says that in the fourth quarter of 2008, SNL estimates “Qualcomm’s MediaFLO had 239,000 subscribers, up from 40 million in the same period a year earlier.”

I assume the 239,000–subscriber number is correct, but there must be a mistake/typo with the 40 million number!  Could it be, instead, “up from 40,000”?  I’ll send an e-mail to the writer for clarification.

Interestingly, the majority of mobile TV subscribers don’t have smartphones.  In 2008, 20 percent of subscribers had smartphones, which will increase to 43 percent by the end of 2010.  By the end of 2011, SNL Kagan forecasts the majority of mobile TV subscribers will be on smartphones, mocoNews.net says.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of cellular users around the world don’t have smartphones, although that number is growing significantly.

Better browsers

Approximately 70 percent of mobile TV revenues result from content producers’ deals with cellular operators.  “However, video will increasingly be watched over a browser as carrier networks continue to open up,” mocoNews.net writes about the SNL Kagan report.

It seems inevitable to me that cellular subscribers will increasingly view mobile TV programs, clips and even movies via browsers as the software improves.  For example, Skyfire’s proxy-based browser can play Hulu in Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, and is testing the browser for BlackBerry phones.

Also, Adobe has been saying from months that it’s working on a full featured version of Flash (not just Flash Lite) for cellular phones.

ROK Entertainment offers 14 mobile TV channels over India's BSNL

ROK Entertainment has launched TINY TV (see below) — 14 mobile television channels over the cellular network of one of India’s major telecommunications companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), ROK says.

The service will cost 150 rupees ($3.16) per month and is offered over GSM GPRS.  That’s right — GPRS — not 3G or even 2.75G (EDGE).  One of ROK’s claims to fame is it offers mobile TV over pokey GPRS channels. 

However, that’s very appropriate for India, which does not yet have (I think) any 3G service.

The channels include: News 24 (Hindi news), international news, E-24 (Bollywood), ROK Bollywood (celebrity news), Geet (Hindi songs), Green (Bollywood music), Red (Bollywood hits), devotional songs, sports and a comedy channel.  

Sony is offering a package of SAB TV, Channel SET and Channel PIX, according to MediaNama.  In addition, the service will include three regional channels for Gujaranti, Marathi and Bengali audiences.

Full length movies

As part of TINY TV, ROK is offering a Bollywood channel “with full length movies that can be paused, fast forwarded and rewound,” MediaNarma reports.  Those would be great features, but as the article says, “It does seem that it would be a task to just stream a movie over GPRS, forget forwarding.” 

GPS typically offers real-world download speeds that are about equal to dial-up modems, about 56K bps.  In some locations, the fastest GPRS data rate might approach 100K bps.

Even over 3G networks, mobile TV sometimes has problems with pixelation and buffering.

KPMG cellular user survey

For a cellular user survey, the consulting firm KPMG surveyed people in 19 countries, including 210 people in India, reports Reuters.  In India, 86 percent of those surveyed said they were likely to watch mobile TV within the next 12 months.

Mobision begins mobile TV in Iraq with 20 channels, two devices

Iraq has begun DVB-H commercial mobile television service, Mobision, using content from Alsumaria, an Iraqi satellite television network, according to Alsumaria’s press release. 

The service began May 28 and features some 20 channels.  I don’t know most of them (which isn’t surprising!), but I recognize Al Jazeera (which I’ve watched on the Web), Al Arabiya, National Geographic Channel and Star Movies.

Mobision offers two mobile TV devices, the Samsung SGH P960 phone (see below) and the Quantum personal media player.  The company also is working to certify other handsets, which it says include Nokia, Sagem, LG and ZTE.

Costs, microSD features

The subscription is based on prepaid cards for one month for 18,000 Iraqi Dinars ($15.53), three months for 45,000 ID ($38.84) and one year for 165,000 ID ($142.41).  That seems a very reasonable price to me, assuming there aren’t other required charges, such as an expensive cellular data plan.

It also requires a microSD card provided by Mobision from Nagravision, and I don’t know if there’s an additional charge for that.  The service doesn’t require a SIM card for viewing.

The microSD is used for security and for storing user files, but it also could be used to bundle variety of other content, ranging from videos to advertisements.  Very interestingly, one article reports, “…Mobision subscribers have the ability to record and time-shift DVB-H services adding PVR (personal video recording) capabilities to mobile TV viewing.”

Recording mobile TV programs for later viewing?  Many people would love that feature, but I haven’t heard of it being available.  I wonder if mobile TV in Iraq will be the first to implement a PVR capability.

Coverage, signing up

The service covers northern and central Iraq, including Baghdad and Kurdistan.  In a few months, Mobision plans to offer service in southern Iraq, including Basra and Diwaniyah.

Consumers sign up for service via SMS to a short code or by calling Mobision’s customer care number.  Activation takes up to 24 hours.

Mobision has been testing the service since August 2008.