Mobile TV services in China look set to enjoy a surge in popularity, with In-Stat forecasting subscriptions to grow to 94 million by 2009, with 2007 expected to be the year that the services gather significant momentum.
According to In-Stat’s recent
Mobile TV in China: Heading for the Promised Land report, the Chinese government is pushing for widespread Mobile TV availability in time for the 2008 Olympics.
Commenting on the findings, Anty Zheng, In-Stat analyst, said: “Telecom operators in China have developed a clear business model for streaming mobile video services over a 2.5G or 3G network.”
Zheng continued: “But unclear regulations need to be straightened out so responsibilities and value chain positioning can be settled; otherwise, market development will be inhibited.”
In the US, eMarketer projects that 3 million US consumers will watch TV programming on their mobile phones in 2006, up from 1.2 million in 2005. By 2009, the analyst expects there will be 15 million video viewers, an estimated 6.2% of total mobile subscribers (see US Mobile TV Subscriptions To Hit 15 Million By 2009).
Meanwhile, Juniper Research predicts worldwide mobile television revenues to increase rapidly before the end of the decade, peaking at $7.6 billion in 2010, up from an estimated $136 million this year (see Mobile TV Set For Massive Revenue Growth).
This trend is mirrored in the UK, with results from the Oxford Mobile TV trial (see UK Consumers Keen For Mobile TV) and a similar study from BT both revealing a high level of interest from consumers in a commercial mobile TV service (see BT Reveals Consumer Interest In Mobile TV).
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