Primetime for Mobile Television?
IBM have a great document available for free download: Primetime for Mobile Television.
The document covers all the issues, some of which will be very familiar to mobile developers who don’t work in Mobile TV. For example, there’s the difficult issue of resolving the business model across too many parties.
In fact, it’s worth looking at all the key issues…
• Content: Availability of the “right” content is key. Consumers want access to specific content to suit their tastes. “Must see,” interactivity and personalization are key adoption criteria.
• Pricing: The success of Mobile TV depends on consumer’s willingness to pay. Bundled, tiered flat
rate pricing is more likely to be accepted than à la carte (metered) pricing. Additional fees can be based on pay-per-view, clip casting and interactivity-driven purchases.
• User friendliness: Key issues including form factor, power consumption, added functionality and TV picture quality have yet to be resolved. Handsets must be attractive and affordable.
• Business model: All parties involved have to agree on their roles in the Mobile TV value chain, including the adoption of a revenue sharing model that is acceptable to all.
• Digital Rights Management: Content providers see Mobile TV as a new channel to market for their content and want to enforce content rights and payments.
• Technology standards and spectrum allocation: The coexistence of several incompatible standards and problems with harmonization of the frequency bands, in particular in Europe and Asia, are key hurdles to be overcome.
These issues aren’t new. Apart from the last one, I have seen most of them turn up, in various disguises, in many mobile projects.
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