Consumers Look To Different Media To Watch TV

Commenting on the demographics of the early adopters’ viewing habits Jon Beaumont, director of Continental Research, said: “Interestingly, there seems to be some social class bias, with ABC1s most likely to have viewed TV via the internet, but C2DEs more likely that ABC1s to have viewed TV via their mobile phone.”

He continued: “The mobile phone appears to be slightly more inclusive across the whole demographic spectrum. For example, there is a male bias to viewing TV via the internet that does not exist for viewing via mobile phone.”

When asked about technologies that they were interested in accessing television through, 17% of respondents expressed an interest in watching TV via the internet, while 6% wanted to watch on their mobile phone.

Beaumont added: “Interest is likely to rise as people’s awareness and knowledge of the available services increases. At the moment that knowledge is minimal. However, this is changing rapidly. Sky and Vodafone have just launched a 19 channel mobile TV service, meanwhile, on the internet, the BBC is trailing its Integrated Media Player and Sky aims to launch its broadband sports and movie service by the end of the year.”

Mobile TV is increasingly becoming part of the media mix, with 3G handsets enabling users to access the technology rising in popularity. According to Juniper Research, 3G technology is forecast to enjoy a surge in use, with subscribers predicted to reach over 300 million by 2010, up from 30 million in 2004 (see Increasing Mobile Phone Penetration Causing Providers To Deepen Content).

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival this summer, a panel of industry experts confirmed the rising popularity of mobile TV, with Deborah Tonroe, head of commercial development at Orange, saying that “everyone has a TV and a mobile phone, there’s a real marriage there (see Mobile TV Hits the UK Media Mix).”

Continental Research’s findings on viewing TV via the internet are echoed in industry forecasts for internet protocol TV (IPTV) shifting into the mainstream market, with research from Informa Telecoms & Media predicting the technology to reach 25.9 million subscribers globally by the end of 2010, up from just 2.7 million at the end of 2005 (see IPTV To Reach 25.9 Million By 2010).