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OYSTER BAY, NY, June 23, 2006/Satnews Daily/
— In 2011, mobile TV services will have some 514 million subscribers
worldwide, up from only 6.4 million at the end of 2005, a new ABI
Research study has found.
The fledgling market for mobile television is beginning to build
significant momentum, according to the report, Broadcast and Unicast
Mobile TV Services, and advertising-supported broadcast services are
expected to propel additional growth over the next few years.
“Broadcast will be the preferred method of access
to mobile video for most people,” says principal analyst Ken Hyers.
“Unicast will remain part of the mix, for customers who want to access
video-on-demand, but ABI Research believes that the majority of
subscription services will be for broadcast content, and that unicast-only
subscriptions will not be a significant part of the market.”
South Korea and Japan are the early adopters, but European and North
American markets are not far behind, with three contenders planning to
introduce mobile video broadcast services in the United States over the
next 12 to 18 months. MediaFLO (Qualcomm) plans to be first off the
mark, having announced its intention to launch services in the fourth
quarter of 2006; Hiwire (Aloha Partners) and Modeo (Crown Castle) will
follow suit in 2007.
But Hyers cautions that most markets will not be able to support more
than two broadcast networks due to the high cost of building them. He
says “most markets only have three or four major mobile operators
selling wireless services to subscribers.”
What will determine which broadcasters survive in any given market? The
most critical factor will be commitment from mobile operators, according
to Hyers. “MediaFLO has been built for this purpose from the ground up,
and will almost certainly be among the winners in the US,” Hyers
believes.
“Verizon Wireless has already committed to it.
Modeo and Hiwire are competing for the business of just three major
operators, and one of them will fail. Each has strengths and weaknesses.
Modeo plans to be faster to market, and if it signs a major operator
quickly, its battle is half won. On the other hand, in Hiwire's favor is
its large (12 MHz) and valuable swath of spectrum with more favorable
characteristics than Modeo's.”
Broadcast and Unicast Mobile TV Services explains the market dynamics
behind mobile video, including the key industry players, enabling
technologies, and business models.
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