A new study says that half of European mobile users are interested in mobile TV, and would pay an average of €10 per month for it. That seems pretty high, butwhat’s more interesting is that the study found “over 65% of those questioned expressing zero tolerance to what many consider to be an unwelcome intrusion into their mobile world. As well as being likened to e-mail spam, advertising was considered particularly unacceptable if it intruded on paid for time watching mobile TV.” Okay, so they don’t want ads on content they’ve paid for, fair enough — but the real question is if they’d accept ads to offset the content charges.
Despite what they might say in a survey, half the mobile users in Europe aren’t going to shell out for an expensive new handset that can receive TV broadcasts, then boost their spending by €10 per month. But, if the price of the service can be significantly reduced or eliminated through the use of advertising, uptake will undoubtedly increase. It would seem to make sense to follow a traditional TV model if you’re going to going to offer TV services — have a tier of “free-to-air” channels supported by advertising with premium, paid services on top. The free networks may not bring in subscription revenues for carriers, but they can bring in ad revenues, and act as a tool to fight churn.
Setting up mobile advertising as an all-or-nothing play isn’t helpful. Obviously consumers won’t let themselves be taken advantage of, but they will be open to advertising if it offers them some benefit and value, such as free or subsidized content.
[tags]mobile, mobile content, mobile advertising, mobile TV[/tags]
Carlo - Here’s what I have to say about reports published by Forrester and Gartner and the like on the mobile space - “pbbbbbth”
Now, as a power user of mobile applications and devices and as a developer of mobile applications myself I think that the prophesized “coming mobile-video deluge”(1) will be a non-event unless the content creators and content aggregators get their act straight. Charging end-users for content that creates some value in their mobile lifestyles in my opinion is a fair business model, but to try and subsidize the price to attract a larger market is not going to work since the “mobile” viewers attention span is far smaller than the average television viewers. Secondly, I believe users expect mobile phones/pda’s
to respond to interactions fairly quickly - WAP died as a technology when users kept waiting for content to be delivered to their devices…
The same fate awaits those who will adopt a business model that forces a user against the basic mobile tenets (2)…
(1) http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc20051011_9768_tc024.htm
(2)http://www.bellubbi.com/wordpress/2006/06/06/tenets-of-mobile-application-interaction/
Carlo - HI , Just curious and would gladly want to know who all are interested in getting their Ads on a Mobile Video Distribution Network ??
I am Siddharth Goenka , Content Manager for Bugzy , a Startup Mobile Media Company in India whose USP being the first Mbile Media Streaming company.
We are looking for video content and would gladly partner with anyone who has content.
Thanks , hope to hear from you soon… My Email is siddharth.goenka@bugzy.in
Anyone who wants to partner with us , that is if you have Video content , please feel free to write to me.
Thanks