Barriers Block Mobile TV Take-Up
Several obstacles stand in the way of mobile television services becoming highly successful. However, argues Tim Barber from Continental Research, some of these hurdles can be overcome, giving greater user experience and leading to a growth in take-up.
The ability to watch selected TV services via mobile phone has been around for over two years, and has been the focus of significant marketing efforts by the network operators. There are also independent providers offering mobile TV services across the various networks. Despite this, our latest Mobile Phone reports showed that mobile TV had only been used by 1% of mobile phone owners in the past 12 months. Just 3% of those that hadn’t already used it said they were likely to do so in the following 12 months.
It therefore appears that paid-for mobile TV services may be unlikely to provide a significant income stream for the networks (and other operators) in the immediate future. There remain substantial barriers to overcome if mobile TV is to be a widespread success. Although mobile phone screens continue to grow in size, they are always going to be limited due to the desire to keep most mobile phones as small and as compact as possible. This naturally limits the type of TV content suitable for mobiles. Over half of existing mobile TV users said they were dissatisfied with the size of the picture, although two-thirds were satisfied with the picture quality.
News, sporting clips and music videos are much more likely to appeal than big budget movies or wildlife documentaries, where visual impact is key to the appeal of the programme. One reason, given by a 27-year-old mobile user interviewed for our study illustrates this: “A mobile is too small to see things properly on the screen. You can’t really see what’s going on”.
This is reflected by the types of content most mentioned as appealing by those likely to watch mobile TV over the next year. The most popular type of content was news (mentioned by 53%), then music videos (47%), followed by comedies such as Little Britain and The Office (38%). Naturally these types of programmes often rely as much on the sound and what is said as opposed to visuals or on-screen action. The types of programming of least interest to mobile owners were drama’s such as Lost and Heroes (25%) and soap operas like EastEnders (19%).
Another significant barrier to the widespread take-up of mobile TV is that a mobile signal is required to receive the transmissions. The quality and strength of the signal can be inconsistent, meaning that TV reception can cut out in the middle of a program or cannot be received at all. This particularly impacts upon what could be key opportunities for using mobile TV, such as when travelling by coach or train, when interference from the vehicle and varying signal quality as the user travels around could affect their viewing experience. Nearly half of existing users of mobile TV interviewed were dissatisfied with the geographical coverage of the service. A 38-year-old that had tried to use the service stated: “The phone network is too patchy.. .around here to work properly.”
A further issue affecting take-up is the technical difficulties experienced by those that actually do try to use the service. One user that was tempted to sign up to a free trial on his network’s mobile TV service said: “I tried to get it working three times, but each time that they [the network] told me I’d now be able to watch the TV services – I couldn’t. And then after I cancelled the service they continued to charge me for three months, even though it had never worked!”
If those that do initially attempt to use the service experience difficulties, they are likely to generate poor word-of-mouth putting off other potential users, further contributing to slow take-up of the service. This will also have a knock-on effect and put off customers from trying out any future services the networks introduce (such as downloading MP3s). A similar effect was initially witnessed when WAP was introduced, with many early-adopters experiencing problems, depressing the initial take-up and usage of this service amongst other mobile users.
As with most new mobile phone features, the younger age groups – particularly 16-24s – are the key markets, with just under one in ten (9%) of this age-group stating they are likely to use mobile TV in the next year, so there is a potential market for it. There will be certain barriers that the networks and handset manufacturers are unlikely to be able to overcome such as screen size, but if they deal with issues such as reception, ensuring the service works properly for those that do sign up for it, and continue to target the younger age groups that are most receptive to this service, then we may see more significant growth in the forthcoming year.