Who will profit from Mobile TV?

PC World (the news site, not the shop…) is carrying a story that’s questioning who is going to make money from Mobile TV. A lack of business models, and the fact that consumers are moving away from broadcast are key reasons it cites.

It goes on to say that equipment vendors (infrastructure and handsets) are the ones aligned to potentially make any money. For carriers it says ,the lack of busines models present serious problems – consumers just won’t be willing to pay enough to cover the cost of content.

One of the analysts quoted, Martin Gutberlet (research vice president at Gartner) says:

“What they are trying to do is repackage TV for mobile phones, using the same channels. That’s not what I want. Content needs to be adapted to fit mobile phones, more personalized”

There are also the other competing technologies/services on the handset that will pull the attention of users away from watching TV – traditional voice and messaging, next-gen messaging, and UGC services are all potential candidates for this.

The report comes back later on to also make the case for On-Demand rather than broadcast content – serving up what the user wants, when they want it.

There are also some technological hurdles, such as the broadcast standard to be used, and also the available frequencies within each country. As is clearly put:

“Opting for a single standard is useless if there is no common spectrum available to deploy it, according to analysts at Ovum. Lack of a common spectrum could lead to interference at borders.”

Comment: the report raises some interesting points. To my mind, “Mobile TV” has, and will continue to be, about a bearer-independent service that consists of BOTH broadcast AND On-demand services. It’s the service offering to the end-user (which has to be clear, simple, and enticing) that will bring the customers in.

[Via: PC World]