Threefold Revenue Jump Expected For Mobile Video Services

Service provider revenues from mobile video services would triple this year, as wireless operators rollout better technology, a research firm said.

Revenues this year are expected to reach $600 million, compared to $200 million last year, Infonetics Research said in a report released this week. From 2005 to 2006 revenues jumped 317%.

Similarly, the number of subscribers between 2005 and last year tripled, the research firm said. By 2010, the number is expected to reach more than 46 million worldwide. Driving the strong growth is increasingly powerful and efficient handsets, and better technology for delivery.

Infonetics expects to continue to see healthy growth in mobile video services as wireless operators expand the bandwidth of their existing high-speed networks, roll out dedicated broadcast networks, and deploy new mobile video service delivery platforms.

"Competition among service providers will keep subscription prices lower in the long term, but that revenue will be supplemented by incremental service revenue from on-demand viewing," Infonetics analyst Jeff Heynen said in a statement.

A spike in service revenue would occur in 2008 due to the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the research firm predicted. The Asia Pacific region is expected to be the stronghold of mobile video subscribers through at least 2010. In 2006, Asia Pacific accounted for 57% of the world total, followed by Europe, Middle East and Africa, 31%, and North America, 10%.