Reiter's Mobile TV Report

More people in 2008 to purchase multimedia cellular phones than TV sets

More people this year will purchase multimedia cellular phones — that can play music and videos and access the Web — than purchase television sets, according to “Mobile Media 2008:  The Third Screen for Entertainment” sold by Research and Markets.  The research report says 300 million people will buy multimedia phones in 2008.

According to the report, Nokia says 25 percent of entertainment on mobile devices will come from online communities.  Currently, 3.3 billion people have cellular phones.

Steve Garfield provides suggestions about, reasons for live streaming cellular videos

Journalist Steve Garfield, a big proponent of using cellular phones for transmitting live videos, provides advice about how to get started with cellular streaming as well as lots of information about video blogging.

On March 18, Bhaskar Roy, co-founder and vice president of marketing at Qik, posted a video of Garfield discussing live streaming cellular video during a meeting of the New England Press Association (see below).

In addition, Garfield recently wrote in one of his weblogs a brief, basic guide to getting starting streaming cellular videos.  In his “Three Steps to LIVE Mobile Broadcasting,” (see below) Garfield writes that the best handset for streaming cellular video is Nokia’s N95–3.

Best cellular video phone?

He’s quite likely correct.  I have the original version, the N95–1 (I guess the first model would be the “1”) and it has been considered one of the best, if not the best, for shooting cellular videos, streaming or otherwise.

However, courtesy of Nokia I recently received the new Nokia N82, which has a five megapixel camera (like the N95) and a Xenon flash (the N95 has an LCD flash).  Photos with the N82, especially when using a flash, are probably better than the N95’s, and I posted some photos in my new N82 photo album.

I posted only one N82 video — taken at night under poor lighting and when it was raining — but I wouldn’t be surprised if the N82 would take better videos than the N95.  With every generation of Nseries camera phones, Nokia typically enhances the imaging capabilities.  I’ll be posting more videos in the weeks to come.

Garfield writes in his weblog that he began video streaming using ComVU’s software and hosting service (that I also tested months ago).  He stopped using ComVU and is now testing Qik (that seems to be his favorite, so far) but also is testing other services — Flixwagon, Kyte.tv and Bambuser (I’m not familiar with Bambuser).

ComVU, Qik and Flixwagon offer live streaming videos from camera phones.  Kyte.tv has begun to actively develop mobile initiatives, but its live streaming mobile platform is still in the early stages (see below).  “Kyte Mobile Producer” is in private beta for Symbian Series 60 phones.

Video blogging guide

Garfield also has posted a guide to video blogging, that’s composed of — naturally enough — videos (see below).  Garfield and several other writers have developed the guide that has seven chapters, including: “Is Videoblogging News?”, “Ethics and Ownership” and “Vlogs as Citizen Media.”

The chapters are about four to five minutes and seem more for desktop video blogging rather than cellular.  I haven’t watched all of them, but they look useful and professionally edited.

Asian broadcasting association releases mobile TV report with ten keys to success

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CSBAA) has released a “Mobile TV” report developed by a research group, Tomorrow, that lists ten keys to the success of mobile television, says the association's press release.  The key are:

1.   The network
2.   Ease of use
3.   The ecosystem
4.   Devices
5.   Coverage
6.   Revenue
7.   Regulation
8.   Content
9.   Advertising
10.  Lifestyle

I couldn’t find the entire report online, but thanks to an entry by IntoMobile, I found an article by Adoi Magazine that discusses in detail those ten points.  The report seems to hit many of the major issues surrounding mobile TV.  I wish I could read the entire report.

Network, ease of use, ecosystem

“The network” involves the necessity for providing sufficient bandwidth to enable subscribers to view video without the system crashing.

“Ease of use” is pretty much self-explanatory.  The article says, “Video that is hidden deep within pages of menus, requiring multiple clicks to access is not a compelling content experience.”

“The ecosystem” means also the players — network operators, content providers, handset manufacturers, etc. — must work together to create a robust business. 

“Apple combined attractively designed music and telecommunications devices (iPod/iPhone), with consistent middleware to allow users to manage their content assets (iTunes), with a universal delivery platform (Internet), and finally a large selection of well priced music and video content (negotiated deals with music labels and TV studios),” the article says.

Devices, revenue

“Devices” entail developing handsets that are easy to use, offer good battery life and are reasonably priced.  “Coverage” can make the difference for, as an example, a subscription-based service that offers mobile TV in train tunnels compared to a free service that does not.

“Revenue” generation is a complicated issue that includes flat rate pricing, that can be a problem for cellular operators who don’t have a mindset for this type of payment.  It’s also a problem for operators who have a significant number of prepaid customers and who have to modify their billing software.

In Malaysia, the subscription television company Astro All Asia Networks “discovered the problems that entails if the average top up is 15R, and your service costs 20R [Ringgit].  They devised an alternative billing strategy to avoid defaults.  Astro’s solution was to implement ‘bill chunking’, which levies 5R every week for 4 weeks rather than a single lump sum,” the article says. 

Regulation, advertising

“Regulation” involves not only making spectrum available for mobile TV but also developing rules for using the spectrum, such as whether the service should be paid or free, whether advertising may be incorporated, etc.  “Uncertainties about mobile broadcast licenses in the Philippines, and content provision in China are examples of factors that can slow the development of Mobile TV services.

“The commercial viability of the free T-DMB service in Korea, despite its advanced device and delivery platform, is also restricted by regulations on the placement of advertising,” Adoi Magazine writes.

“Advertising” is a “sleeping giant” that’s still very much in the early stages.  One problem is obtaining sufficient numbers of subscribers to make it attractive to advertisers.  George Schmidt, the CEO of Google, has said cellular ads should be twice as valuable as non-mobile ads.

Lifestyle

“Lifestyle” entails a mix of culture and geography.  For example, a city with skyscrapers can be difficult to cover with mobile TV signals, while a flat area with low buildings is much easier for radio waves to penetrate.  Also, some cultures spend a great deal of time using mass transportation while others use automobiles.

“Every city has a context — a pattern grid of existing media consumption and usage.  Understanding this provides insight into how quickly new services like Mobile TV will become embedded into the fabric of everyday life,” the article says.

The Internet wild card

The Internet is a “wild card” in the equation, especially as Asians born in the 1990s spend a huge amount of time on the Internet.  “In their world, there is no piece of content not easily available to them — anytime, anywhere or on any device they choose. 

“This new generation is unlikely to approach mobile TV with the same mindset as us.  Media is a fluid concept for them.  They talk about it, share it, and use it to represent who they are.”

The report has a four-minute video that summarizes the points.

TV Guide wants to leverage its products for mobile TV...but how?

TV Guide is trying to figure out how to leverage its products for mobile television, including how to improve the user experience, says Bob Shallow, the vice president and general manager of Gemstar-TV Guide International's mobile entertainment group, in an “E-Commerce Times” article.

Shallow says in the article:

“We provide a robust metadata infrastructure.  We've amassed a library of program titles -- basically, every program that's aired on television dating back to the advent of TV, and film dating back to 1910.

“We have a tremendous database, and we've really learned how to optimize that for the delivery of this information into a guidance experience on various platforms.

“We also have developed a range of TV Guide services.  So, when you think of an on-screen guide, it is actually made up of a variety of parts, and those parts are your basic listings, your program information, plus enhanced features like the ability to set reminders, set recordings, parental controls, user profiles.

“We've created all of these guidance services, and we've really continued to innovate a lot around those services.  That's really important these days when you think about the emerging paradigm in terms of how people are consuming media.”

More information, please

I wish the reporter would have asked Shallow more in-depth questions so the information wouldn’t be so, uh, shallow.  So what is TV Guide going to do with all this information, from a mobile TV standpoint?

He says, “We're trying to figure out how to provide the best user experience so a consumer could go out to various platforms and pull media into a common user experience and -- very simply, with very few clicks -- get from one piece of content that might be housed over here to another piece of content over here.

“Or, once they set up a profile once, have it reflected on various platforms so it's easy to move within their various content environments and still have the best experience.”

What content?  What platforms?  What exactly is he talking about?

The interview, unfortunately, doesn’t say.

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.

New York Times TV critic starts "Screens" blog on mobile TV, vlogs, Web video

Virginia Heffernan, a television critic for The New York Times, has just launched "Screens,"a blog dealing with new imaging media, including mobile television, cellular videos, video blogs, Web videos and video on demand (see below).

Here's what Heffernan says about "Screens":  "With television and the Internet converging at last, who's going to watch all this here-goes-nothing online video?  Everything from political propaganda videos to nip slips (the popular video of, yup, celebrities revealing their breasts) seems to expect an audience.

"'Screens'" will find, review and make sense of all those senseless new images:  web video, viral video, user-driven video, custom interactive video, embedded video ads, web-based VOD, broadband television, diavlogs, vcasts, vlogs, video podcasts, mobisodes, webisodes, mashups and more."

I'm certainly going to be a regular reader.