We all know mobile TV will be a killer app — it just makes sense to entertain yourself while commuting (that’s in case you’re using a public transport and/or NOT driving). The latest report from Juniper Research goes in the same direction, suggesting that worldwide annual consumer spending on mobile broadcast TV services will exceed $6.6 billion by 2012. At the same time, there will be nearly 120 million mobile TV viewers in more than 40 countries — that’s ten times more than today. As expected DVB-H will be the dominant standard.
The report also deals with regulatory issues, cautioning that services “face significant technological and regulatory hurdles both prior to launch and as they bid to build a critical mass of subscribers.” According to Juniper’s analysts, regulators need to make optimal UHF spectrum available as soon as is practicably possible. On the other hand, it’s up to vendors to ensure that broadcast TV chipsets are rapidly introduced into a wide range of mass market handsets to facilitate adoption.
Finally, let’s talk about markets. United States will be the single largest mobile TV market by 2012, followed by Japan and Italy… Full release available from here.