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Mobile TV goes off the boil |
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| Chris Forrester, on 08-10-2008 |
 DVB-H and arch-rival MediaFLO are two mobile phone technologies that have been much talked about for the past two or three years. Back on September 16 we published comments from Mike Short (VP/Technology at 02) saying that the emphasis by mobile operators has moved back to single mode cellular mobile video, and away from dual mode cellular with mobile TV. He said that prospects for broadcasting network TV to mobiles were decreasing, not increasing.
“What this means is more downloads, more clips and more streaming to a
cellphone but without there being a separate broadcast network. If the
3G capability is in place then this has a lot more power to offer
download and steaming capability to handsets and the innovation in the
cellular world is increasing, not decreasing.”
His words have now been confirmed by new data from Juniper Research,
which states that fewer than 14% of users will sign up for premium
mobile TV services. While Juniper still forecasts appealing annual
worldwide revenues of $2.7bn by 2013, its research suggests that the
development of new handsets which can receive free-to-air analogue and
digital terrestrial TV signals will adversely impact the commercial
prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast efforts.
That process is playing out in Germany, where as we reported yesterday,
DVB-H service Mobile 3.0 has been told to give back its licence after
failing to fulfill its requirements.
"The development of terrestrial TV-capable receivers with comparatively
low power consumption, and the availability of these receivers in mass
market handsets, throws into question the business case for the
deployment of a dedicated network in many markets," says Juniper report
author Dr Windsor Holden. "There will always be a market for some form
of premium TV service on the mobile handset, and with broadcast TV in
many markets likely to consist simply of the free-to-air terrestrial
signals, the gap in the market is likely to be filled by streamed
video-on-demand services over the 3G network."
The report suggests the US will be the lead market for content to
mobiles by 2013 and pushing South Korea into second place. However, it
also predicts that MediaFLO (the main rival to DVB-H) will launch in
parts of Asia and the UK by 2010.
© Rapid TV News 2008
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