Mobile TV penetration is being hindered by technological difficulties, with poorly designed features, high costs and low standard visibility slowing consumer uptake.
According to new research from Amberlight, users complained of “patchy” 3G coverage leading to frozen broadcasts.
Consumers also cited the time taken to access services through different menus as well as difficult electronic guides as problematic.
Commenting on the findings, Gerred Blyth, director of consultancy at Amberlight, said: “If operators could make their services easy to use and competitively priced then there is a real opportunity to become a valuable tool for people with time to kill.”
Despite these failings, recent research from Magna Global expects the number of 3G users watching video worldwide to exceed 500 million by 2009 (see Mobile Phone Advertising To Increase).
Consumers in the UK seem keen to adopt mobile TV technology, with findings from the Oxford Media Trial released earlier this year results from the Oxford Mobile TV trial (see BT Reveals Consumer Interest In Mobile TV) and a similar study from BT both revealing a high level of interest from consumers in a commercial mobile TV service (see UK Consumers Keen For Mobile TV).
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).
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