In-Stat Reveals Growth Estimates for Mobile TV

SUNNYVALE: A new white paper from research firm In-Stat and technology firm Telegent Systems predicts that the number of free-to-air analogue mobile TV users worldwide will rise from 54 million today to 300 million by 2013.

Analogue mobile TV has been adopted across Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia/CIS, the Middle East and Africa, in markets where the transition to digital TV has not yet occured. The data was collected from users in Brazil, Colombia, Turkey and Indonesia.

"The adoption of analogue mobile TV handsets has been driven by the most powerful force in the mobile industry: consumers," said Frank Dickson, the VP of research at In-Stat. "Analogue mobile TV has two very fundamental and compelling advantages—cost and availability. The infrastructure is already in place, there are no new standards that need to be enacted and the service is free to consumers—a very powerful combination."

Among the key findings is that more than 50 percent of mobile TV consumers surveyed watch content on their smartphones at least three times a week, and 20 percent watch every day. In some territories, 40 percent or more watch mobile content daily. About two thirds of the user base watch mobile TV for 30 minutes or more on the days that they watched TV. Popular use cases for watching mobile TV included while in transit, while at home and during breaks at work. In Indonesia, where traffic is notoriously bad, the "in-transit" use case predominated.

"In-Stat’s research findings help to validate our statement to the marketplace that analogue mobile TV is a very compelling content offering to a wireless operator’s subscriber base and to consumers," said Telegent CEO Weijie Yun. "The success of free-to-air mobile TV is the result of two primary drivers: 1) content—the fact that the content that consumers view is the same broadcast as what they watch on conventional TV and 2) the universal coverage enabling consumers to watch it in almost every corner around the world."