Wireless Informatics Forum

So what really happened to Mobile TV?

Four key factors that have prevented growth.

1) Poor handset support

Regardless of a slip in market share, Nokia remains the dominant force in the handset market. Certainly in Europe, the network carriers are looking to Nokia to deliver a strong line-up of Nokia DVB-H handsets in order to gain mass-market adoption of mobile TV services. However, this just hasn’t happened. Finland’s finest seems to have gone a little cold on the technology.

As early as last year the warning signs were there. Nokia’s head of internet services admitted that DVB-H wasn’t taking off in the way the company had hoped, and that customers seem more interested in downloading content than watching broadcasts.

It’s a classic game of chicken and egg. The carriers want Nokia DVB-H equipment before they make infrastructure investment and Nokia wants the carriers to invest and commit before they offer move product.

Today only a handful of Nokia device include built-in DVB-H compatibility. Nokia do provide an external antenna to a wider range of devices but that seems far from optimal. Even the N97 – one of Nokia’s biggest handset launches of the year, shipped without DVB-H as standard.

2. Mobile Broadband

Mobile Broadband has been the surprise success of 2009. This has had a direct impact on mobile carriers’ Mobile TV aspirations. Both services are data hungry and many carriers have reported aborting their Mobile TV strategies to save on network bandwidth and allow mobile broadband to grow.

The trend towards data bundles and all-you-can-eat price plans will continue to strain network resources. Experts predict 3G traffic volumes are set to increase by a factor of 20 by 2015.  A major tier one Mobile TV launch would undoubtedly require significant network investment and traffic prioritization strategies to mitigate the potential impact of network latency on the user experience.

3. Handset Category

DVB-H compatibility remains a feature almost exclusive to the smartphone and high-end feature phone segment. The technology has yet to find its way into mid to low-end devices . This will be critical to gaining mass-market acceptance, especially within the high-growth markets of Brazil, China, India etc.

4.) Downloading / side-loading

Who needs broadcast content when you can download and watch at your convenience?

Unlimited data plans have removed the number one barrier to data adoption – bill shock. This has opened the flood gates to users proactively seeking out their own multimedia content and downloading it to their device.

The practice of side-loading (transferring content from another device, principally a PC, via cable, Bluetooth, SD Card etc) also remains a strong channel for getting content onto the mobile handset. The practice has traditionally been leveraged for the management of music content, with consumers syncing up their playlists through brand-name and OEM proprietary music stores and library consoles. The practice is now extending to include audio-visual content.