Mobile TV set to be very popular — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{CeBIT supports Nokia’s numbers} Mobile TV set to be very popular

12 Mar 2006 at 06:15 GMT Timo Poropudas

Global pilots reveal strong consumer demand for broadcast (DVB-H) mobile TV service, Nokia said just before the start of the huge CeBIT Fair in Hanover, Germany.

Last year Nokia, despite its leading position in mobile TV, did not show its handsets in CeBIT while. Samsung and Siemens exhibited prototypes.

This year mobile TV in handsets is one of the main themes of the trade fair that closes on Wednesday. Nokia made mobile TV one of the main marketing points. Nokia’s DVB-H N92 handset is scheduled to be shipping in June.

Samsung announced that it would have model for all mobile TV broadcast standards, possibly also for the American MediaFlo.

Nokia: Great consumer acceptance

Results from pilots on broadcast (DVB-H) mobile TV services amongst consumers in Finland, the UK, Spain and France have revealed clear consumer demand for such service.

Each of the pilots involved Nokia and a broad spectrum of companies, including broadcasters, mobile operators and broadcast network providers, revealing the widespread interest in making mobile TV a reality.

According to Informa, there will be 50.97 million DVB-H devices sold globally by 2010.

Each pilot also involved broadcasts of live digital TV content over DVB-H networks to the Nokia 7710 smartphone.

Pricing models

The potential commercial benefits of mobile TV for the industry are made clear by these pilots with such a high proportion willing to pay for the service.

The most popular pricing model to emerge is a monthly subscription for a package of channels. In the Helsinki pilot, half of those that took part thought EUR 10 per month was a reasonable price to pay, while in France, 68 percent were willing to pay EUR 7 per month for mobile TV services.

Viewing patterns

New prime times for broadcasters and advertisers also emerge from the pilots.

The UK results reveal a lunchtime viewing peak higher than the normal TV pattern, suggesting that viewers are enjoying their favorite TV content while on their lunch break.

In France, participants watched mobile TV for 20 minutes on average per day with early morning, lunchtime and mid evening representing the periods of highest use. The Spanish pilot also reveals mobile TV viewing spread throughout the day with early evening representing peak viewing.

An interesting aspect of all the pilots was that many users watched mobile TV within their homes. Almost half of those taking part in the French and Spanish pilots claimed to mainly watch mobile TV at home. For almost a third of participants in the UK pilot, this represented their first taste of multi-channel TV.

Content

The overwhelming message from these pilots is that consumers want both a wide range of channels but also content that is suitable for watching on mobile devices.

The most popular types of content were news, sports, music, soaps and documentaries. Interactivity was also an important functionality with over half of Spanish users (58 percent) saying they wanted specific, interactive content adapted to shorter viewing times.

In the Finnish pilot, the San Marino and Monaco Grand Prix as well as the UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and AC Milan were among the top 10 programs viewed.

Mobile-TV: Satisfaction guaranteed
Finland	UK	Spain	France
Positive response to mobile TV 58% believe Mobile TV services would be popular	83% are satisfied with the service	75% would recommend the service	73% were satisfied with the service
Willingness to pay for mobile TV 41 %	76 %	55 %	68 %
Acceptable monthly fee for mobile TV 10	-	5	7
Average daily viewing 5 to 30 minutes of Mobile TV per day on average	23 minutes per session with 1 to 2 sessions per day	16 minutes	20 minutes
Peak viewing times -	Mornings/lunchtime/ early evenings	While commuting and between 7pm and 8pm	Morning (9-10), midday (1-2) and evening
Popular content Local programs available through Finnish national TV and sporting events	News, soaps, music, documentaries and sports	News, series and music	News, music entertainment, sport, documentaries, films

Source: Nokia

The Finland pilot took place between March and June 2005 with 500 users and involved Nokia, Digita, Elisa, Nelonen, Sonera, YLE and MTV.

The Oxford pilot commenced in September 2005 offering 16 channels to 375 pilot participants. The pilot is being conducted by O2, Arquiva and Nokia with the final results being announced in spring 2006.

The first pilot in Spain, involved 500 users in Madrid and Barcelona and was conducted by Abertis Telecom, Nokia and Telefonica Moviles. The results were announced at this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The French pilot is running by CANAL + Group, Nokia, SFR and towerCast between September 2005 and June 2006 and involves 500 users.