Pick a Mobile TV standard – generate $2bn!

Did I say “one beeeeleeeeon dollarrrs”?! No, actually I said Two. Billion.

Yep, that’s the amount of annual revenue that apparently could be generated, if a Mobile/Handheld (or M/H for those in the know) standard was chosen quickly, according to the NAB technology advocacy program.The report concludes that new M/H DTV (Mobile/Handheld Digital Television) services can be maximised if an ATSC standard is released by early 2009.

For those of you that don’t know, ATSC is the US standard for Digital Terrestrial Broadcast, so the report is essentially saying that a piggyback or interworking between what exists, and a future Mobile standard is what’s needed. Of course, there are many “wonderful” variations of Mobile TV, as I’ve noted before – but the likelihood of getting the entire value chain to stick to one standard is not very likely, as has been evidenced by deployments of M-TV so far. There are even variations within standards, as well as between them!

It’s an interesting report nonetheless, because again it’s predicting big things for Mobile TV – the questions that are at the forefront of most (commercial) peoples’ minds though are how they are going to monetize the various features and services on offer.

So here it is – if you could get broadcast Mobile TV, what features would you pay for? Premium TV channels, interactive competitions/quizzes, associated content download, or something else?

[Via: PhoneContent.com]