Comments on: Mobile TV? http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/06/mobile-tv/ The Catalyst Code Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:19:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.11 by: Sami http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/06/mobile-tv/#comment-508 Wed, 07 May 2008 05:04:27 +0000 http://www.thecatalystcode.com/theconversation/blog/2008/05/06/mobile-tv/#comment-508 Well I'm not an American reader, but I can say there's one pretty serious roadblock to any mobile TV takeup in the US: the networks, for the lack of a better technical term, suck. Streaming video content of decent quality requires a fairly good-quality signal at all time. I'm sure most people having used cellphones in the US will agree that the reception, well, could be better most of the time. Broadcast technologies like DVB-H are another story but the short-term future of DVB-H in particular is not looking very hot anywhere. As for mobile advertising and it becoming "huge", well, it depends on what you count as huge. If you believe the optimistic forecasts, it'll be a ~$15B business globally in four years. Put that figure into the proper context: mobile communications will be around a ~$850B business in the same timeframe - so operators looking at mobile advertising to save their falling ARPUs are better off looking elsewhere. Well I’m not an American reader, but I can say there’s one pretty serious roadblock to any mobile TV takeup in the US: the networks, for the lack of a better technical term, suck. Streaming video content of decent quality requires a fairly good-quality signal at all time. I’m sure most people having used cellphones in the US will agree that the reception, well, could be better most of the time.

Broadcast technologies like DVB-H are another story but the short-term future of DVB-H in particular is not looking very hot anywhere.

As for mobile advertising and it becoming “huge”, well, it depends on what you count as huge. If you believe the optimistic forecasts, it’ll be a ~$15B business globally in four years. Put that figure into the proper context: mobile communications will be around a ~$850B business in the same timeframe - so operators looking at mobile advertising to save their falling ARPUs are better off looking elsewhere.

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