Reiter's Mobile TV Report

Cellular operators blowing unique mobile TV PR opportunity with digital transition

With all the publicity about today’s digital television transition and converter boxes (see left) in the United States, you would think the cellular operators would try to take advantage of it by promoting their mobile television and mobile video offerings — at least a little bit.  You would think wrong.

Sprint’s home page is promoting the Palm Pre, and its online iLounge applications store is promoting, well, nothing special (see below).  Verizon Wireless’ home page is promoting no special phones, and is touting its network and the new MiFi.  AT&T Mobility is promoting the iPhone 3G S.

To be fair, it certainly makes sense that Sprint is promoting the Pre, Verizon is promoting its network and MiFi and AT&T is promoting the new iPhone.  But there’s nothing about mobile TV, either on their home pages or in the press releases.

AT&T issued a press release today promoting applications for the NCAA Men’s College World Series (yawn), which includes mobile TV.  But that’s about it for any operators’ mobile TV-related press releases.  Perhaps I’ve missed some other recent mobile TV press releases from the cellular operators?

Blowing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

The digital TV transition is, literally, a once in a lifetime event in this country.  Qualcomm is doing its part to publicize its FLO TV, which is now expanding into 39 more markets (as I wrote) because the broadcasters must, finally, give up their analog spectrum.

In great part because of FLO TV’s press release, many publications and bloggers have been writing about mobile TV, including Investor’s Business Daily, where I’m quoted.  If you live in the U.S., you obviously know what a big deal this is. 

However, FLO’s home page doesn’t do anything to tie in the digital transition to its expansion, although at least it has posted the press release…if you look for it.

Mobile TV industry doesn’t “get it”

MobiTV, which isn’t affected by the switch from analog to digital — but is a major mobile TV program aggregator — also hasn’t done anything special on its home page or its blog.  The blog, which would be a perfect place to discuss the transition and tie it in some way into MobiTV, on June 11 posted an item about Showtime (see left) and hasn’t posted anything at all today.

Hey mobile TV executives — wake up!  You haven’t done enough to promote mobile TV, and you certainly aren’t effectively using the Internet the way it should be used.

It’s ridiculous that the Web pages of mobile TV companies don’t say something about the digital TV transition and relate it to their products and services. 

MobiTV has been using Twitter, but, like its blog, merely as an advertisement for its programs.  There’s a FLO TV Twitter account, but I don’t know if it’s an “official” company account.  In any case, it’s mostly an advertisement, like the MobiTV feed.

Awful after-sales customer education

Cellular operators have rarely done a good job using the Internet for after-sales customer education.  Today’s digital TV transition is a shining example of how the operators are not effectively employing the Internet to exploit a marketing and educational opportunity.

Citizen journalism tools and informing the world about live streaming videos

My latest weekly wireless communications “Thinkernet” column on CMP’s “Internet Evolution” discusses software and services for cellular phones and on the Web for facilitating citizen journalism (see below).  It also poses an interesting question.

How do people know when others are using their cellular phones to stream live videos?  Currently, streaming cellular videos is the province of early adopters — mostly the technology/wireless geeks.  But what happens when millions of people around the world begin streaming live videos from their cellular phones?

More than three billion people have cellular phones.  Of those phones, about one billion are camera phones and a significant percentage can record videos.  Just as billions of photos are being taken with camera phone, so will millions — and then billions — of videos be taken.

How do we know?

As people become familiar with shooting videos, they eventually will become more comfortable taking videos that are streamed live to the Web.  How will we know when videos we want to watch — right now — are being streamed?

One view of the future might be on Mogulus’ home page that features multiple windows of broadcasts (see above).  Mogulus offers free hosting for live broadcasts (that also are archived), although the company doesn’t offer any option for transmitting from a cellular phone.  A variety of companies, though, offer live cellular video streaming services.

But whether the broadcasts are transmitted from a cellular phone or from a computer with a camcorder or video cam, how can we pick out the wheat among the chaff of all the live videos?  As I write in the “Thinkernet” column, companies like Qik, are offering ways, such as via social networking, to alert potential viewers.

Perhaps new, smarter, search engines will be able to quickly detect key words and concepts to alert us.  Perhaps the National Security Administration (see left) could commercialize some of its tools!

Ofcom "Communications Market Report" says few Brits aware of, use mobile TV

A major U.K. government report about the state of wired and wireless communications contains a huge amount of information on a wide range of technologies and applications, including the use — or lack thereof — of mobile television in the country.

The 330–page Office of Communications’ (Ofcom) “Communications Market Report” (available in three sections plus summaries) didn’t devote much space to mobile TV, but the space it did devote indicated mobile TV is way, way down on cellular users’ consciousness and use.

Only ten percent of cellular users surveyed for the report were even aware their phone could play mobile TV.  That’s the lowest percentage of awareness for the 13 features in the survey.  But that’s a high percentage compared to those who actually watched any mobile TV — two percent (see below).

Little value

Based on those statistics, it’s no surprise that the ability to watch short television clips on a cellular phone ranked as the least valuable telecommunications service based on those listed (see below).  Based on a scale of one to five — with “one” being “Not at all valuable” to “five” being “Extremely valuable” — 56 percent of Brits surveyed ranked watching TV clips a “one.” 

Sixteen percent ranked watching short TV clips a “two,” 14 percent, “three” and seven percent, “four.”  The chart above doesn’t show the percentage who ranked it a “five,” but the next chart (see below) shows three percent for the average of all age groups surveyed.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Youthful interest

It’s not surprising that younger cellular users are more interested in watching mobile TV clips, although even the best result isn’t much.  The best — ages 15 to 24 — is six percent who gave watching TV clips a “five.”

Fourteen percent ranked it “four,” 21 percent, “three”; 20 percent, “four” and the highest percentage — 35 percent — ranked it a “one.”

Interestingly, another chart that shows awareness of cellular phone capabilities (see below) indicates that 29 percent of consumers surveyed are aware they can download and view video clips and seven percent used the feature.  This compares, as I wrote above, to the ten percent who were aware of mobile TV and two percent who used it,

Marketing, marketing, marketing

I don’t know how many times I’ve written how the United States cellular operators, in general, have done a terrible job of marketing mobile TV.  I’ve also e-mailed and spoken with many types of companies in the mobile TV arena about doing a better job marketing the service through their Web sites, weblogs, podcasts, etc.

My wireless data business is basically business development — helping companies improve their existing offerings or create new ones — and I’ve practically begged companies (whether they’d use my services or not) to do a better (often, even a competent) job of marketing mobile TV.  Just about all shrug.

This month I wrote two articles for the Web site “Mobi-lize,” that I’m helping to develop, about how good a job the cellular operators are doing providing information to consumers about mobile TV in their retail stores and on their Web sites (see below).

I won’t keep you in suspense — for the most part it’s not a pretty picture.

The mobile TV industry certainly has problems that need to be solved as, for example, Continental Research recently noted.  But I’m confident the problems can be solved.  And mobile video is a natural extension of human communications.

Camera phones, entire U.K. telecom world

As you can see from the first chart in this article, awareness and use of cameras in phones — of which I’m also a proponent — fared better than any other feature.  Earlier this evening I posted an article on “Reiter’s Camera Phone Report” about what Ofcom had to say about camera phone awareness and use in the U.K.

As I also noted in that article, if you’re interested in the varied U.K. telecommunications environment — Internet, WiFi, cellular, broadcast/cable television, etc. — check out the entire Ofcom report.  MocoNews.net has a brief summary of it and BBC News has a detailed article about the report’s findings plus two video reports.

Apple's iTunes newsletter: Relevance to mobile TV, cellular multimedia

I was looking through some old e-mails (alas, some of my e-mails aren't just old but prehistoric) and read a bunch of old Apple iTunes e-mail newsletters. 

One of them a couple of weeks ago highlighted world news podcasts that are available on iTunes (see below).  These include podcasts from the BBC, The New York Times, National Public Radio, The Economist and The Washington Post.

Interesting stuff.

If you get the newsletters you know about iTunes' newest offerings for music, music videos, television shows, short films/animations, full length movies, audio books, iPod games and, of course, podcasts.

Cellular's pathetic marketing

Now let me ask you:  How many of you are able to subscribe to weekly or monthly newsletters from cellular operators that discuss their new and interesting multimedia offerings?  For example, there's a wealth of channels -- and shows within the channels -- for mobile television.

Do any cellular operators send out mobile TV newsletters?  How about music download newsletters?

To be fair, I know one U.S. operator, Sprint, is publishing a monthly camera phone newsletter that promotes its camera phone-related products.  Sprint also has a camera phone weblog (that I help write).

But what else is there?

Promoting multimedia

Frankly, the cellular industry's marketing efforts stink when it comes to providing subscribers and would-be subscribers with ongoing after-sale information.  We hear many cellular operators moan about the lack of take up of their multimedia products.

If the cellular operators want mobile TV subscribers they can't rely on just TV, radio and direct mail promotions.  And, hey, operators, your retail stores and sales people stink when it comes to highlighting multimedia services.

Well, duh, how about providing information -- like the iTunes newsletter -- on a regular basis?  How about establishing some carrier-oriented mobile TV weblogs?  How about a mobile TV newsletter?

The iPhone advantage

One enormous advantage Apple has for its iPhone is, as I've written before, iTunes.  It's a multimedia powerhouse for pushing content (see left) to iPhone subscribers. 

The cellular industry in the U.S. has nothing that compares to iTunes' breadth of offerings.  And even if cellular operators did, how well do you think they would promote it?

Perhaps Verizon Wireless will do a better job of offering ongoing information to subscribers when it launches V CAST Mobile TV this quarter.  And I'm not thinking of just a mobile TV section on its Web site but, also, dynamic information such as a weblog and newsletter.

We'll see just how smart those marketing experts are when it comes to mobile TV.  I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

Umbria sells research report about bloggers opinions on mobile TV

Umbria, a Boulder, Colo. research company, is selling a report that discusses what bloggers are saying about mobile television, the company says.  The report reviews "mobile TV user demographics and habits, captured from online blogosphere conversations."

Umbria says bloggers wrote with increasing frequency about mobile TV during the summer and fall, "underlining a growing interest and aligning with adoption rates."

I don't know whether Umbria has used information from this weblog and the company never sent me a notice about the report.

Bloggers write...

Umbria's press release says:

*  Males posted two-thirds of the comments about mobile TV usage
*  TV shows and movies are the most commonly cited mobile TV content viewed on handhelds
*  Bloggers are more likely to download mobile TV content versus view it in real time
* Online conversations about mobile TV range fairly equally across all age groups, from Baby Boomers (aged 45 – 62) to Generation X (aged 30 – 45) to Generation Y (aged 15 – 30)
*  Bloggers prefer dedicated media devices by a wide margin over using multi-purpose handhelds such as cell phones, PDAs and smart phones
*  Cost is the most significant barrier to mobile TV adoption, according to bloggers

I'd be very interested in learning what Umbria writes about these opinions.  Sometimes bloggers are right, sometimes wrong (except for me, since I'm always right!).

For example, important issues include the type of programs most viewed, the type of devices most used to view mobile TV, the use of real-time streaming versus archived programs and whether the cost of mobile TV is indeed the most important barrier to adoption.

I have opinions all these areas.

Where's Umbria's blog?

Umbria says it's "a marketing intelligence company that analyzes the unaided opinions, perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of the online world (comprised of blogs, message boards, Usenet, product review sites, etc.) and distills it into actionable insights about companies, brands, products, people and issues."

So where's Umbria's own weblog?  I guess its interest in the "online world" doesn't extend to offering its own opinions in any weblog, message board, etc.

Laptop Magazine says Sprint Movies need improvements, but there's good

Laptop Magazine reviews watching Spiderman 2 on Sprint's new full-length movie downloand service, Sprint Movies, and reports the service has some good points although it's far from perfect.

The good news is:  "The resolution was better than expected, with crisp images, and audio that matched up exactly with the video.

"Doc Oc’s tentacle arms looked itty-bitty and a bit grainy but still menacing, and Spiderman’s acrobatic moves translated pretty well onto the small screen.

"We also liked that we could view the film pretty easily by chapter, which is probably what we’d do instead of watching the whole thing in one fell swoop."

However, watching the movie in segments isn't perfect.  The article says, "Sometimes it takes a while for chapters to load, so pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding can be more annoying than rewarding."

Bad news

There's a fair amount of bad news.  For example, the movie's viewing area shrinks to less than the size of the phone's screen.

That's bad.  Given the tiny size of the entire screen (about 1.8 inches on the Samsung SCH-a900 the magazine used), shrinking the movie to about one inch square doesn't make for a pleasant experience. 

I find the same problem when viewing Sprint's mobile television programs -- also on the a900 that I've tested.  The programs -- ABC News Now, Fox News, Discovery, TLC, etc. -- don't fill the entire screen.

Laptop Magazine also notes the LCD darkens (as is typical to conserve battery life) when the movie begins.

So, you have to adjust the settings to ensure a continuously bright screen when viewing the movie.

Buffering problems

In addition, the movie stopped and started several times, the article says.  Frankly, that's not surprising based on the vagaries of cellular networks

I've had good experiences with 1xEV-DO over Sprint's network in the Washington, D.C. area.  However, the mobile TV videos (I haven't tried Sprint Movies....yet) do indeed sometimes start and stop or suffer from pixelation.

The magazine reports that one time Spiderman 2  "disappeared and a yellow error message appeared in place of the viewing screen. 

"The screen came back and the film resumed once we pressed play, but, to our annoyance, the error message was viewable in the background for about the next half hour."

Typical problems

Also, it was difficult to watch some action scenes when the characters and the camera angles moved quickly.  Laptop Magazine notes "the data stream couldn’t quite keep up, and this resulted in some blocky, off-color scenes."

This also isn't unusual for mobile television.  It's common knowledge (among people in the wireless and broadcasting industries) that cellular phones have difficulties displaying rapid movements, among other problems (such as dark scenes and low contrast). 

Laptop Magazine found the battery lasted as long as they expected -- for about two thirds of Spiderman 2 with the screen at full brightness.  You are able to resume watching the movie where you left off.

In conclusion

Overall, the magazine gives Sprint Movies 2.5 stars out of five. 

However, the review doesn't trash the service and is hopeful, noting it's "worth keeping an eye on.

"The service may not be the best way to watch your favorite action flick but it could definitely fulfill sudden movie cravings while on the go.

"That is, assuming Sprint finds a way to use the phone's entire screen."

Suggestion for Sprint

I've got a suggestion for Sprint:  Provide a "tips" video or text for watching movies.

Offer Sprint Movie viewers the option to watch a bried video or read a text tutorial about to, for example, maintain the screen's brightness and use the PVR-like functions.

One of my pet peeves about cellular video services is the pathetic lack of customer education about how to use and best take advantage of them.  It's a subject I will continue to discuss.

The future

I also think cellular operators should seriously consider allowing subscribers to download an entire movie to watch on their phones at their leisure, such as the service now available from Apple iTunes. 

Yes, there are serious challenges, including a phone's available memory.  A 2GB memory card would suffice but they aren't cheap and many phones don't have a memory slot.

A few -- a very few -- phones are coming out with hard disk drives that could store movies.  Indeed, increased phone storage is one of the "major trends to watch" that consultants are so found of discussing!

Some phones offer a better viewing experience (for mobile TV and moview), such as those with larger, higher resolution screens.  But cellular operators have done a poor job of highlighting such phones.   

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

How about mobile TV "how-to," new service videos?

Mobile television subscribers get the short -- very short -- end of the stick when it comes to getting information about how to best take advantage of mobile TV and learn what's new.

Frankly, the customer education stinks.  Mobile TV in the United States is a new, esoteric, premium service that many consumers see as suffering from low quality LCDs, mediocre network performance and a mishmash of content.

I'm a fan of mobile TV (obviously) and I like it -- a lot -- right now, despite the problems. 

But it really could benefit from marketing that helps subscribers (1) learn what mobile TV is all about, (2) keep abreast of new channels and new programs within channels and (3) learn about interesting developments, such as when Sprint provided an Emmy Awards channel as well as Sprint and AirPlay offering an interactive application for the Emmy's.

Mobile TV about mobile TV

So, instead of cellular operators spending all their time obtaining new programs and even establishing their own content production ventures (such as Amp'd Mobile and Sprint), how about if they began spending just a little bit of time creating an ongoing mobile TV show about their existing mobile TV services?

Every week, say during the weekend or Monday morning, cellular operators could transmit one or two videos about the three subjects I just mentioned. 

The "Mobile TV Educational Channel" (no, I am not suggesting that as the name!) would include two "folders" or subchannels:  One featuring how-to tutorials and the second discussing what's new.

The how-to tutorial subchannel wouldn't have to be updated often, but the "what's new" channel should feature weekly updates. 

Leveraging the medium

That way, the operators would be leveraging the medium of mobile TV to educate their subscribers.

Customer education -- what a concept!

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

How easy is it to find/download Sprint Movies application on your phone?

On Tuesday I wrote about Sprint launching Sprint Movies that enables users to download full-length movies for $3.99 - $5.99 per film.  I wrote that I didn't see that "channel" on my Sprint handset.

I sent an e-mail to Sprint's public relations firm and they responded with the way to download the application that's necessary for using Sprint Movies.  If you're a Sprint subscriber, here are the seven steps for downloading the Sprint Movies application from your main menu:

Go to Main Menu > My Content > Applications > Get New Applications > Music, Entertainment, Astrology, Comics > Entertainment > Movies, TV, Celebs > Sprint Movies.

Simple!

How you you know?

I tried it on my Samsung SCH-A920 camera phone and the download worked just fine -- once I clicked through the menus.  You may see the movies for downloading, the cost for renting each movie and the amount of time you have in which to view the film (one day to one week).

What I want to know is:  How is the average Sprint consumer going to know how to download the Sprint Movies application?

I'm not a Sprint subscriber because Sprint sends me phones to test.  So, did Sprint send any e-mail or e-mail newsletter about the application to its subscribers?  Did Sprint send any SMS to subscribers alerting them to Sprint Movies? 

Did Sprint include a "Sprint Movies" channel on its the menu for its media player?  I didn't see that in my handset, and I see, I think, what subscribers see.

Big problem

This is part of a bigger problem:  How do cellular subscribers -- to Sprint or any other cellular operator -- know when new mobile TV services are available?  The down and dirty answer:  They don't.

My business is wireless data consulting that helps companies develop new and enhance existing products and services.  I can see several ways to inform subscribers about new mobile TV features -- based on information from the cellular operators themselves or from third parties.

There's an opportunity here to capture consumer mindshare in the mobile TV environment.  So far, I don't see it occurring.  Anyone need any help?

Mobile TV Alliance chief says consumers still need to understand mobile TV

Yoram Soloman, the president of the Mobile TV Alliance (a new group supporting DVB-H), says consumers still need to "get" the concept of mobile television, according to an article in Electronic News.

"People still don’t get it.  They didn’t get iPods, they didn’t get Blackberry, they didn’t get a lot of things until they held them in their hands," he says.

"You need a tipping point, something you really, really want to watch when you can’t be home," says Soloman, who also is senior director of strategic marketing and industry standards for Texas Instrument’s mobile connectivity solutions.

Little bits of mobile TV

Soloman explains, "You don’t watch a 30 minute show on mobile TV.  You watch two or three minute chunks from CNN, CNBC or ESPN. 

"It’s the same thing as Blackberry.  If you have two free minutes, you check your e-mail.  Now, you’ll watch TV."

For the most part, I think that's true.  I've watched mobile television on a variety of handsets and most people aren't going to spend much time watching videos on a small screen with relatively poor resolution.

However, many people are willing to watch  "one hour" (about 43 minutes without commercials) television programs on Apple's video-enabled iPods -- a fact I mentioned previously and will continue to mention.  Cellular phones with better, larger screens will stimulate interest in watching mobile TV for longer periods at a stretch.

It takes time

The World Cup has generated a huge amount of hype as being, supposedly, a major event to stimulate the use of mobile TV, as I've written before.  I guess when the matches are over we'll learn exactly how much interest and how many revenues the soccer championship generated.

Currently the quality of World Cup mobile TV is generating mixed reviews, ranging from good to watch because of good quality videos to a poor experience because of delayed programs and "stuttering" performance.

Soloman says if the World Cup isn't going to be the major "tipping point" there will be other opportunities -- such as the Super Bowl -- to spark consumer interest.  "There aren’t a lot of technologies that come out and people get right away," he says.

"If this isn’t the tipping point, there will be something else.  The big thing is just putting it [mobile TV] in their hands."

I think most analysts agree.  It can take a long time, ten years or longer, for a critical mass of consumers to adopt certain technologies.