Global Mobile TV Market to Generate 4.4 Billion Euros by 2011

LONDON, December 3: A new Screen Digest study forecasts that the global mobile TV market will grow to 140 million subscribers and generate revenues of 4.4 billion euros by 2011, with North America to experience the biggest increase.

The study, entitled Mobile TV: Business Models and Opportunities, examines the market for mobile TV in 25 countries worldwide, including Europe, the U.S. and Asia. By 2011, the North American mobile TV market will increase its subscriber base to 28.8 million and revenues to 1.8 billion euros. There are currently more than 15 million subscribers to mobile TV in Asia. Italy has 850,000 paying subscribers, and France has more than half a million subscribers to unicast services. At the same time, despite Asia’s large subscriber figures and longevity of mobile TV services, Screen Digest believes that by 2011, the Asian market will generate less revenue than Europe and the U.S. Europe will lead with a 42.5 percent share of global revenues, followed by the U.S. at 40.5 percent and Asia accounting for the remaining 17 percent.

The report also provides figures on two delivery methods for mobile TV—broadcast and unicast—for three main regions: Asia, Europe and North America. The broadcast market is expected to experience rapid growth, with the number of markets offering the service tripling in the next two years to stand at 18 by the end of 2008. In the last two years, new services have been launched in Italy, the U.K., Germany, the U.S. and Japan. Screen Digest believe that broadcast will become the most prevalent method to deliver TV to mobiles, with the more niche approach offered by unicast complementing it with premium and added value services.

The report also reveals that in the short term, network operators don’t stand to make much profit from offering mobile TV services but must offer it to remain competitive. Operators who do not offer mobile TV will lose their subscribers to other operators or other media devices, with Screen Digest citing the example of the popularity of in-car devices in Asia. The lion’s share of the income from offering mobile TV services will be shared between the handset manufacturers, software companies, content creators and network owners. However, the experience in Italy does offer mobile network operators the opportunity to upgrade pay-as-you-go customers to contracts in order to access the content. By doing this, operators can experience as much as three times the revenue per unit, without increasing the already saturated subscriber base.

"The free-to-air services are the success stories for subscriber uptake, yet business models for mobile pay-TV are still to be proven,” said Ronan de Renesse, the author of the report. “Content owners and handset manufacturers can gain in the short term with incremental revenues through a different distribution channel or by selling more expensive handsets. While mobile TV may not generate significant revenues for operators over the next four years, bundling to move subscribers to contract will. The operators not investing now in mobile TV risk losing out when the subscriber base finally becomes established enough to generate revenues through pay-TV models and advertising."

—By Irene Lew