This Box Was Made For Walking

A new report commissioned by Nokia and conducted by Dr Shani Orgad from the London School of Economics, “This Box Was Made For Walking”, indicates that the personalisation and interactivity will be the key drivers of mobile TV.

According to the report, the introduction and adoption of mobile TV will ultimately give way to a more personal and private TV experience than that of traditional broadcast TV, with big implications for users, content providers and advertisers. Users will be able to receive content anytime, anywhere, choose what is most relevant to them, and even create and upload their own television content, while content providers and advertisers will be able to tailor their offerings more specifically to the user.

The current trend of user generated content will be a key feature of mobile TV. As consumers increasingly use their mobile devices to create video content, new broadcast platforms will emerge to distribute this content to other mobile users. The United States television channel, Current TV, is a good indicator of the future with 30% of its programming consisting of user-generated content.

The five second ad spot

Dr Orgad examined the impact of mobile TV on the advertising industry and predicts new opportunities for the industry as it is able to better target and interact with key audiences. On mobile TV, advertisers will be able to pinpoint their messages to users according to very specific levels not possible with traditional TV and at success rates higher than those of the Internet.

The report also reveals that advertisers are currently experimenting with five and seven second-long ad spots to be better suited to the “snacking culture” of mobile TV viewing.

What will people watch?

The report predicts that mobile TV programming will be a combination of original content from broadcast television and new content made specifically for mobile.

It is expected that the most popular genres and programmes on mobile TV will be news, entertainment, sport, music and children’s programmes. Moreover, the content will be tailored with the mobile viewer in mind:

• Much shorter and more concise news bulletins
• User interactivity in the plots of reality TV shows and game shows
• Growing importance of user-generated content
• New distribution formats: in China, for instance, the movie Kung Fu Hustle was made into ten segments for mobile TV

New TV content

The mobile TV viewing experience is also likely to see new programme formats emerging. These include:

• Talking heads and close ups – due to the small screen size, broadcasters will need to focus on talking heads, where viewers will be able to watch close-ups and see the details, rather than capturing a wide screen.
• “Snackable content” – mobile TV content will need to be suitable for “snacking”.
• Mobisodes – mobisodes are fragmented and small made-for-mobile episodes that cater to bite-sized portions of content on the go.
• Visual spectacle – programmes will need to emphasise visual spectacle over conventional narrative and be image-orientated.
• Local content – content should be relevant for the here-and-now of viewers.

New prime times

Broadcasters are likely to see a new midday prime time with mobile TV according to the report. This is backed up by consumer trials of mobile TV in Europe which revealed heavy usage of mobile TV during the day as well as during the more traditional early morning and late evening prime times.

“This Box Was Made For Walking” report was based on a review of existing literature, analysis of mobile TV consumer trials, interviews with experts in the fields of television, mobile media, advertising and other media, and attendance at industry events.

Downloads:

• Mobile TV Report conducted by London School of Economics (PDF file, 3 MB)
• The Future of TV Will Be Personal (PDF file, 79 KB)