Mobile TV services to generate over USD10 billion in revenues in 2013

19th November 2008. Revenues from Mobile TV services will generate USD1.5 billion in revenues in2008, rising to over USD10 billion in 2013. At present the revenues arepredominantly from subscription fees but this is expected to change overtime as the advertising business model starts to gain prominence. InformaTelecoms & Media believes that by 2013 nearly half of the revenues will comefrom advertising.

In the next two years, growth is anticipated to be strongest in thepioneering markets of South Korea and Japan before the rest of the worldstarts to catch up around 2010/2011. Despite isolated success stories inplaces like Italy and Austria, Europe is not expected to see rapid growth inMobile TV until 2009. The USA is expected to take even longer as confusionover standards prevents growth. Eventually, concerted momentum behindATSC-MH is expected to boost the market for mobile TV in North America.

“As the owner of the marketing and billing relationship with subscribers,operators are in the best position to offer mobile TV services”, commentsShailendra Pandey, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. “It seemsthat a good approach for mobile operators will be to start with afree-to-air business model which also involves minimum capital investment.Once user uptake of services starts to grow, operators can then think ofdeveloping new revenue models that can be established on top of thefree-to-air content platform”, adds Pandey.

Most in the industry believed that Mobile TV was going to reach the massmarket a lot earlier than has been the case. A number of market andtechnology barriers have conspired to delay the widespread adoption ofmobile TV by consumers and growth in many regions is still fragile.

Research from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that the future of Mobile TVwill not be just broadcast or 3G but will be a mix of technologies matchedto a mix of audience experiences. The research is contained in the lateststrategic report, Mobile TV: Strategies, Business Models & Technologies, 4thEdition, published by Informa Telecoms & Media.