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Mobile TV: A Huge Failure?

The sound of white noise coming from England is deafening. Several months ago, Over the Air reported that mobile TV services were not taking off as expected in the U.K. A new article in the Guardian practically sounds the death knell and says that fewer than 1% of Brits have signed up. Cue "For Whom The Bell Tolls"?

I think the numbers speak for themselves. According to the Guardian, 3.9% of the U.K's 45 million mobile subscribers have watched user generated content on their phones. That would be a video you shoot on your phone and send to a friend via MMS. This is respectable. Heck, it might even be enough for network operators to eke out some cash to pay for the 3G systems used to deliver the multimedia messages. Mobile TV services, though, don't fare nearly so well.

Estimates place the total number of regular mobile TV watchers (i.e., subscribers to services) at just 450,000. That's 1%. Ouch. One percent is not enough to help the operators recoup the massive investment made in building the networks used to deliver mobile TV. While the numbers coming from England paint a bleak picture, U.S. operators are mum on the uptake of mobile TV services.

For instance, Verizon Wireless recently reported its second quarter results. Even though its V CAST TV service (which utilizes Qualcomm's MediaFLO network) was in operation during the full quarter, no subscriber numbers were broken out in the quarterly results. Verizon was happy to point out the increases in its data revenues (70%), but didn't go so far as to show us which services earned what. Right now, V CAST TV is still only available in a few dozen markets, and is only viewable on two handsets. Verizon will add more markets and handsets over time.

Sprint also offers mobile TV via its 3G PowerVision services. I have demoed these. While surfing channels and finding interesting content to watch is relatively painless, the viewing experience can be iffy. Stops and starts, out-of-sync audio, and grainy images abound. Same goes for watching YouTube videos on handsets...even when streamed via Wi-Fi and not the WWAN.

What do you think? How many of you have watched or subscribed to mobile TV programming?

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