Asia-Pacific Braces for Mobile TV Fever

The Asia-Pacific mobile video services market is expected to see huge growth potential as mobile operators continue to spend millions on developing innovative services and content to arrest the declining average revenue per user (ARPU). Mobile TV, essentially an extension of mobile video services, in particular is seen as a new killer application that could potentially bring alternative source of revenues for carriers.
New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan, Asia Pacific Tunes Up for Mobile TV, finds that the mobile video services market - covering 12 Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan - earned revenues of over US$440 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach US$1.88 billion by end-2013, at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 27.4 percent (2007-2013).
While South Korea (which accounted for 87 percent or US$383.7 million of the revenues in 2007) will remain as the biggest market for mobile video in Asia-Pacific (outside of Japan), other potential leading markets include Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
“Amid the growing interest in triple-play and mobile advertising, mobile TV has been the buzzword in the Asia-Pacific mobile and wireless market,” notes Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Shaker Amin. “The recent spate of trials and the commercial launches of broadcast networks in Japan and South Korea indicate that the mobile TV fever could well catch on throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”
Two of the regions most mature mobile markets, South Korea and Japan, have introduced mobile TV broadcast services (ahead of the other Asia-Pacific countries) built on homegrown standards. South Korea spearheaded the DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) standards, launching S-DMB (Satellite Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in 2005. While Japan launched ISDBT (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial), or 1-seg, in 2006.
South Korea is expected to hit mass adoption in mobile video services between 2008 and 2010, when the rest of Asia-Pacific joins the commercial broadcast TV service bandwagon.
Other markets that have commercially launched DVB-H mobile TV broadcast services include Vietnam’s VMC (Vietnam Multimedia Corporation) in September 2006, and Philippines’ Smart Communications in February 2007.
In the rest of the Asia-Pacific markets, digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) and MediaFLO remain most commonly selected for trials. In China, T-DMB (a different version from South Korea’s) and CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting), both homegrown standards, are being deliberated for the country’s national mobile TV broadcast standard.
Pricing however remains the biggest hurdle to a wider uptake of mobile video and TV services. In 2007, the total mobile ARPU in Asia-Pacific stood at US$16.8 (including Japan), largely due to the region’s lower disposal income.
Furthermore, mobile TV broadcast service (multicast) requires compatible handsets, which are not widely available throughout Asia-Pacific as yet. In markets where an impending launch is expected, mobile handset manufacturers are still in the midst of finalizing handset requirements with the major mobile operators.
“In most markets, mobile video service becomes especially expensive when a user exceeds the stipulated amount of data in a ‘flat-rate’ plan,” says Amin. “Considering that this is a major restraint to greater uptake, mobile operators could follow the example of South Korean operators who have implemented an ‘eat-all-you-can’ flat-rate for data charges to encourage adoption.”

Motorola Ventures Announces Investment in Quantum SPA, a leading provider of portable media mobility players

Motorola, through Motorola Ventures, its strategic venture capital arm today announced a strategic investment in Quantum SPA, a leading provider of portable media mobility players. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.Quantum is a developer of DVB-H mobile TV media players and a robust mobile TV Software Engine which meets emerging mobile TV standards and DRM content protection solutions. These products allow consumers anytime access to media experiences such as live TV, on-demand clips and programs saved on a DVR.

"As the Mobile TV market continues to grow significantly, Motorola is committed to supporting innovative companies, such as Quantum, that strive to seamlessly deliver multimedia digital content to consumers on the go," said John O'Donohue, managing director, Motorola Ventures. "Motorola will leverage its relationship with Quantum to enable Pay TV Broadcasters and Mobile Network Operators to offer their subscribers compelling services leveraging the convergence of Mobile TV."

"We are honored to be associated with a forward-looking organization and leader in the mobility world such as Motorola," said Stefano Martini, chief executive officer, Quantum SPA. "Motorola's investment will allow Quantum to expand and accelerate the development of our product lines and create the conditions for a successful rollout of mobile TV worldwide."

Mobile TV: Business Models and Opportunties

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report related to the industry is available in its catalogue.

Mobile TV: Business Models and Opportunties

Television is already a mass media and is also currently made available through the Internet Protocol (IP). Marrying the two most popular services in the world may sound like a great idea but there are still several issues which must be carefully addressed before mobile TV becomes a safe investment.

Who is going to pay for the network deployment What will be the underlying business model Are appropriate regulation policies necessary How new regulation may affect the market What are the opportunities for mobile operators, broadcasters and content owners There are currently no straight answers to those questions but several options exist. They must be deeply investigated in order to make appropriate decisions for mobile TV to become successful.

The purpose of this report is to offer an understanding of the fundamental aspects of the mobile TV market past present and future with regards to the technology choice and local context. This report also analyses the mobile TV market from the views of different players in the value chain.

Key findings:

The mobile TV market will be worth over €4.4bn in 2011 in Asia, North America and Western Europe combined

Subscription business models will dominate, generating more than 90 per cent of revenues in 2011

The most impressive growth will be experienced in North America where the broadcast mobile TV market is set to grow by 350 per cent between 2008 and 2010.

A key obstacle to overcome is the lack of spectrum and appropriate regulation

Although free to air services drive customer growth in Asia, the business model lacks proven monetisation methods, therefore undermining its deployment in other markets.

Mobile TV will generate more revenues than mobile music and mobile games combined

In Europe, mobile TV will represent 27 per cent of total pay TV subscriptions.In the report:

Forecasts of mobile TV subscriptions, viewings and consumer revenues to 2011

Background of technology standards and spectrum.

Overview of the current state of the market.

Analysis of the regulation impact on mobile broadcast TV deployments.

Review and history of business models for unicast and broadcast mobile TV services.

Description and comparison of value chain structures.

Market sizes by technology and business models.

Analysis of the impact of mobile TV on the TV and mobile content industries.

Comparison of mobile TV ARPU with other pay TV platforms.

Analysis of the major key players in the industry including mobile operators, broadcasters, technology enablers and service providers.

Data profile for each of the leading markets in Asia, North America and Europe

Mobile TV: Business Models and Opportunties