Bad News for Mobile TV

January 15, 2006 - source: BWCS

UK mobile phone users are more interested in music than TV, according to the findings of a recent BT/Virgin Mobile trial, reported in the UK press this morning. The Guardian newspaper claims to have seen an analysis of the recent BT and Virgin Mobile Group pilot scheme which involved 1,000 mobile customers being given the chance to try out mobile TV and music services.

The findings will not make happy reading for operators hoping to wring greater revenues out of their 3G customer base. According to the newspaper, 59% of those involved in the recent trial service said that access to TV on their handsets was an "appealing" option. However, on the other hand, 65% of the trialists rated mobile digital radio at the same level of interest. The Guardian reports that users watched an average of 66 minutes of TV a week on their phones while they listened to an average of 95 minutes of radio.

Perhaps more tellingly, the research shows that users are prepared to pay around £5 a month for access to TV services on their phones, this is around half of what the industry is hoping to price the service at. The trial is one of the most extensive of mobile TV services being carried out at the minute and involved users within the greater London area. BT's Movio service uses a portion of the digital radio spectrum currently available and allows mobile customers to receive live television programmes as well as digital radio stations.

Emma Lloyd the head of BT's Movio business told the Guardian newspaper, "I would characterise it as radio being even more attractive than TV in the trial. We will be able to piggy-back on the attractiveness of digital radio and I don't think that is a negative thing; I see it as a positive thing because the UK leads the world in digital radio."

The Movio service does not use a mobile network but is sent out via a normal broadcast signal, this allows it to work in areas where mobile phone coverage is poor. It works using internet technology and part of the digital radio spectrum owned by national digital radio broadcaster, Digital One. The first commercially produced handset capable of receiving the broadcast TV images is already being made by Taiwanese company HTC. Virgin Mobile is hoping to land a period of exclusivity for the technology in Britain and says it will offer several TV channels to its customers from this summer.

MmO2 is due to report back on the results of its trial next week. The former BT mobile wing has been trialing the Nokia-backed DVB-H standard, which relies on different radio spectrum.