There is a strong interest among UK digital TV subscribers in sending and receiving messages such as voicemail, short messages (SMS), email and instant messaging on their TV sets, according to research conducted by Continental Research on behalf of Comverse.
The findings indicate a large potential for TVUM (unified messaging over TV), says Comverse. The study covered 400 households, of which 17% were already using email over TV; more than 30% questioned would want voicemail over TV and would pay on average 11p per message for such a service.
In addition, 24% percent see real value in accessing text messages (SMS) over TV and would be willing to pay on average 12p per SMS message. Thirty-five percent of the participants expressed interest in using TV Yellow Pages and more than 30% were interested in a package that includes email, voicemail, SMS Yellow Pages and address book access over TV, and would pay £2.50 or more per month for such a service.
“Unified messaging over TV (TVUM) has the potential to transform standard TV sets into home communication centres,” says Benny Einhorn, chief marketing officer of Comverse. “We believe the cable TV and satellite provider markets are about to embark on an evolutionary change in the coming years and the impact of these services could have a dramatic influence on their revenues, as was experienced when these services were introduced to the cellular markets.”
The UK digital TV market has over 7 million subscribers, receiving service from three operators – BSkyB, NTL and Telewest Communications.
