Mobile TV

Mobile TV
Mobile phone screens have become an unquestionable media, attracting content producers and mobile operators. During the MIPCOM show, Endemol, a strong European content producer, has unveiled the launch of two mobile TV channels and the creation of a dedicated division to this new media. Orange (France) has made a deal with Canal+ to supply video content.

Endemol claims that its famous tele-reality show, "Big Brother", has experienced 6m minutes of connection in 2005 and over 500k downloads in Australia, Italy and the UK. There should be a huge market to come.

According to Strategy Analytics, the mobile content market could reach $70bn by 2008, of which $5.7bn for mobile TV content. TV-enabled phones should overtake 712m units in 2008 (from 65m in 2004).

Taking off, however, will not be done while transmitting on EDGE or 3G voice-oriented networks. Broadcasting will be the solution. In some countries (France) and supported by some vendors, the DVB-H standard could be decided for mobile phones, in spite of spectrum shortage. If already deployed in Korea and Japan, the norm is still in experimentation in Europe. Some hardware improvement are also mandatory, such as a larger screen, a screen distinct from the mobile to give flexibility, or even a virtual screen.