Mar
21
Indian Mobile TV Prospects Look Promising
Filed Under Emerging Sectors, India Business, E-Business, New Media, Mobile Telecom
I believe that the entire broadcast space is nicely poised in a balance between different mediums at present. On one hand, we have traditional mediums like TV. On the other hand, we have a newer medium like Internet, which after an initial period of hype and bust, is increasingly understood and integrated as an important channel of delivery by traditional firms. To make this mix more exciting, we now have mobile TV.
Mobile TV works on the concept that mobile devices act as an alternative distribution interface allowing customer to view broadcasts made by providers on their hand set. Although the medium is still struggling to find out the most efficient technology, the signs are encouraging that the industry is moving towards some sort of standardization. Just to take the example of the technologies, in recent times DVH - B technology is getting traction in the industry.
In any case, due to the attractive market size and focus from the providers I think that very soon we shall see emergence of a viable model where mobile TV does become attractive for operators and consumers.
As reported by Sify (”Mobile TV services in for a big leap”"), “Indian mobile phone users are ready for TV on mobile services with the target market size expected to reach $360 million by 2008, according to the recent study by Springboard Research.
According to the report, 84% of mobile phone users are interested in using mobile TV service provided the service is commonly available and affordable.
Almost 60% of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV at home. News, sports, music videos and game shows were the four dominant types of content that the surveyed users will prefer watching on mobile TV.”
So on one hand, we have providers using Internet to redefine the ways in which to watch TV (youtube.com) and on the other hand, we have TV on mobile that is providing alternate channel for the broadcasters to reach the viewers. To make it more interesting, internet on mobile is a reality for a large numbers today so in fact viewers can already watch sites like youtube.com that are trying to replace TV broadcasters.
To conclude, there are multiple battles going on in this space and the viewers have abundance of choices. On one level, we have choice between traditional broadcasters and newer internet models in defining what content to watch and how it will be done. On another level, we have choice of where to watch the content between computers, traditional television sets and now mobiles. The providers that can work out the right answers have a lot to gain.
About the Author: Yogesh Dashrath is finance business professional based in Europe. He actively tracks Indian business developments and is a frequent contributor to India-Business-Review.com. He is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow, and can be reached using the Contact page.
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