| NOTAS: | IDATE has recently released its market report "Mobile TV - Portable TV: fad or mass market?" which examines the latest technical developments and available offers, and which, above all, represents the chance to speculate on the future shape of what is emerging as a new key stage in the picture revolution. The technology's level of maturity, combined with TV viewing habits, now makes it possible, so as not to say natural, for the telecommunications and TV worlds to collide.
With, on the one side, a readily-available screen in a growing number of users' pockets and, on the other, the fact that users are increasingly willing to pay to access certain content, mobile video services are emerging as a potentially promising market.
For telecom operators, the development of mobile video services can act like a lost leader that allows them to distinguish themselves from the competition, as well as enabling them to increase their ARPU (average revenues per user), at a time of extreme pressure to lower calling prices.
For content providers, mobile terminals, whether phones or PDAs, constitute a new distribution platform and therefore a potential new channel capable of generating additional revenues.
Although the appeal of video and/or mobile TV services for all of these players is clear, the approach to them taken by the different categories of player is not necessarily the same, and may even prove conflicting.
Even though the networks and services are naturally complementary from the user's standpoint, this is less true from the operators' point of view. The failed merger of media conglomerates and telcos in recent years is a good indication of how difficult it can be for these companies to operate a joint strategy. Come from radically different environments, media and telecom groups each have their own singular and well-entrenched goals, even if they share increasingly similar preoccupations.
Despite their apparent inability to communicate effectively with one another, these players would be wise to come to an agreement when building these new markets, be it TV for mobile phones or via ADSL, if they hope to turn a profit. Without content, the networks lose their appeal, and without a distribution channel, the content is of little value.
But the possible paths for collaboration appear to be narrow, as telcos and content providers are both in danger of losing control over the service's value-added. What, in fact, would be the appeal for telecom operators to subsidise their subscribers' purchase of DVB-H-compatible handsets, if the devices are geared only to receiving signals that are not carried by cellular networks, and therefore not likely to generate traffic? And, on the flipside, there are sizeable risks that content would become a more and more commonplace product, without any commercial value, as the example of Freebox TV in France appears to demonstrate. ADSL operator Free offers its broadband subscribers a wide selection of TV channels for free. TV channels therefore become a bonus offer, without any apparent commercial value.
What strategies will be implemented by the players in their drive to optimise the value-added of video services, television included? What areas of symbiosis or competition are there between streaming and downloading services, and broadcast services? What trump cards do each of the players hold?
These are just some of the questions addressed in this IDATE's market report. |
