India Mobile TV to reach $360M
By AZAM on March 8, 2008Indian mobile phone users are ready for Mobile TV services with the potential market size estimated to be US $360 million in 2008, according to Springboard Research market study. The analyst Ravi Pandey predicts 12 million subscribers will use Mobile TV service in the first year of launch.
“Mobile TV marries the two dominant consumption trends of entertainment and mobile telephony in India,” says Ravi Shekhar Pandey, manager - Syndicated Research at Springboard Research. ”The market is ripe for the launch of Mobile TV services and we believe that India will have around 12 million mobile TV subscribers within the first year of launch of service.”
Mobile TV is a technology that allows people to view regular live television content on their mobile phones or other mobile devices that they get through traditional cable or pay TV subscriptions at home. The Springboard Research report says that in the first year of operation, mobile TV could reach a penetration level of 5 to 6% of the total mobile subscriber base in India.
“Both telecom companies as well as broadcasters will have to invest in proper infrastructure and a congenial environment to provide such services,” says Pandey.
Currently , only Doordarshan offers mobile TV service, however according to the report, in recent months the market has seen increased activities from various stakeholders including technology providers, network equipment vendors and mobile service providers like Nokia, Spice Telecom, Qualcomm and Samsung.
Mobile telephone operators will have an advantage over standalone mobile TV operators in that the former already have users subscribing to their value-added services. However, the success of either operator will be dependent on content offered and price charged for the service.
According to the report, 84 per cent of mobile phone users are interested in using Mobile TV service provided the service is commonly available and affordable. Close to 60 per cent of these will prefer watching the same content that they get on TV at home.
”A majority of mobile users in India are interested in trying out mobile TV and would invest in new handsets for using the service. This willingness is definitely a positive sign for those considering offering mobile TV in one of the world’s largest and fastest growing mobile services market,” says Pandey.
Springboard Research, as part of the report, has recommended that service providers should offer on-demand, pay-per-view option, but without tying the user to a monthly subscription for mobile TV. They also recommended close cooperation between mobile operators and broadcasters for a profitable business model to emerge for mobile TV service in India.
The survey, ‘Mobile TV in India: Understanding the Mobile Entertainment needs of Indian users’, was conducted in six major cities across the country, where over 1,215 mobile users took part. According to the research report, mobile TV subscription could reach 12M users and reach penetration level of 5-6 per cent of the total subscriber base in India in the first year of operations in the country.
Categories : Asia, India, Media & Ads, WirelessTags : , India, Mobile TV, nokia, Wireless
[…] Sender 11 wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt Indian mobile phone users are ready for Mobile TV services with the potential market size estimated to be US $360 million in 2008, according to Springboard Research market study. The analyst Ravi Pandey predicts 12 million subscribers will use Mobile TV service in the first year of launch. “Mobile TV marries the two dominant consumption trends of entertainment and mobile telephony in India,” says Ravi Shekhar Pandey, manager - Syndicated Research at Springboard Research. ”The market is ripe f […]