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Mobile TV has taken two contrasting paths in Europe and the US in terms of technology and business models. How does one navigate this minefield of opportunity?
A complicated business model and an even more complex technical backdrop have made mobile TV a difficult format for telcos and broadcasters alike. There have been only a handful of roll-outs with limited success worldwide.
Europe embraced mobile TV very early with most opting for the DVB-H broadcast standard. The results were mixed.
“There are only a few services on air based on DVB-H or DAB/DMB, but a lot of countries are still waiting for the analogue switch-off to make new spectrum available,” says Stefan Wallner, strategic TV market development manager for transmitters at Harris.
Wallner was involved in early trials of the technology in the UK, Switzerland and Australia.
“With DVB-H, a separate transmission network is called for, factoring in an additional expense to the business model,” explains Wallner.
The emergence of the new terrestrial standard in Europe, DVB-T2, will allow broadcasters to use the same network for regular and mobile services, dramatically reducing the costs incurred during the implementation stage.
The DVB organisation is also renewing its efforts on the mobile front with the formation of the DVB-NGH (next generation handheld) working group. Wallner says this could lead to renewed flexibility and new opportunities to make mobile TV more flexible.
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The high cost of network roll-out led many services to pursue a subscription based model. When coupled with premium football content, a decent subscriber base was built in Italy with the operator claiming that its ARPU increased by 20% as a direct result of the service.
“DVB-H has only been successful in very few cases, such as in Italy with H3G. H3G has a significant customer base of around 1 million users – around 15% of its subscribers,” says Hadi Raad, principal, Booz & Co. “H3G, also has a successful roll-out of DVB-H in Austria with one million subscribers, about 10% of its customer base. In the Middle East, Mobison launched a DVB-H service in Iraq back in 2009 with limited adoption in the region of 10,000 subscribers. The DVB-H consortium in the UAE, which inludes telcos, broadcasters and tech firms, is still in a trial phase.”
There is evidence however, that a free-to-air (FTA) model for mobile TV Europe would fare better (see boxout).
Overall, subscriptions struggled and several operators in Europe opted to switch off their mobile broadcast services and offer video content via the 3G networks instead. This of course results in a huge data strain in the network.
A different approach in the US has allowed services to gain a little more traction, albeit in a fairly understated way.
The main difference in the two approaches – aside from the disparate broadcast standards – is the content approach.
“Here in the US the user wants localised content, news sports and weather,” says Jay Adrick,VP of broadcast technology, Harris.
To address network concerns (there are at least six digital TV standards active in the US) the company has developed transmission hardware with standards software-defined. Adrick says Harris is now developing waveforms to suit all of the mobile standards. This also allows for upgrades to equipment, expanding its lifespan.
This also reduces the cost for broadcasters but Adrick says that there is still work for the content owners to do to ensure a healthy ROI.
“It’s crucial to be able to monetise mobile TV through multiple revenue streams, not just a monthly charge for the service. It’s important to be able to measure your audience and provide feedback to advertisers,” says Adrick.
The platform could also serve as an information portal. Harris is working with software developer Roundbox to develop applications such as traffic reporting. Roundbox also develops a number of widgets, TV guides and weather bulletins.
The Middle East is lacking the terrestrial TV network infrastructure to fully (and cost effectively) deliver mobile broadcast services via DVB-T2.
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