Mobile TV going nowhere

Multichoice and e.tv will have difficulty luring "cost-sensitive" viewers to mobile television, say analysts. 

 

Arthur Goldstuck, whose World Wide Worx researches technology trends, said: "Mobile TV is always going to be a poor alternative to conventional TV, particularly at a time when we are seeing TV screens getting bigger and better."
"Absurd pricing" would be a further deterrent, he said.
Multichoice and e.tv were awarded their mobile TV broadcast frequency licences at the weekend but Goldstuck believes they might regret applying for them.
A survey by his company showed that only 1% of 1000 respondents interviewed nationwide said they would take advantage of mobile TV.
"It's going to have very little impact initially because there is very little enthusiasm for it.
"We were promised mobile TV five years ago and even when it was heavily marketed, before and during the 2006 soccer World Cup, there was almost no take-up."
Goldstuck said mobile TV might be good for news and sports headlines, and cartoons worked well on phones, but viewers would return to the big screen once the novelty wore off.
Jean-Paul van Belle, who heads the University of Cape Town's information systems department, agreed.
He said Multichoice and e.tv should be applauded for their entry into the field, but cautioned that pricing could work against them.
"South Africans are cost-sensitive and the expensive charges will turn them off."
He was referring to the streaming costs charged by all cellular network operators.
Van Belle said that though cellphone users sent many SMSs, multimedia messaging was under-utilised.
"We have been slow on the uptake, so data services have not taken off."
Many South Africans were looking for a "killer application" - which mobile TV "just might turn out to be" - but Van Belle said he was "sceptical about how the service will survive once the novelty has worn off".
Multichoice said it had poured R300-million into "experimentation on mobile broadcast technology and network infrastructure" since 2005. It has not said when its mobile TV service will begin.