Some Mobile TV coverage hits Olympic Gold

Permalink: Some Mobile TV coverage hits Olympic Gold by Alan Harten

Success at the 2008 Beijing Olympics hasn’t just been restricted to the athletes. According to reports from NBC and reported on CNET.com, the Olympic Games was watched on a mobile device by 210,000 people on Friday (day one), and increased to 476,062 by Monday – that’s double the viewers!

With the announcement of these impressive statistics, QuickPlay Media, the premier provider of mobile video solutions, is urging the mobile industry to build this mobile TV momentum beyond the Olympic Games.

Despite wide scale adoption of 3G-capable mobile devices in the European market, consumer usage of mobile TV and video services remains low.

These low adoption rates are illustrated by the results of a recent UK survey by QuickPlay Media, in which 44% of mobile phone owners indicated that they were not aware of mobile TV or video services being available to them.

Of those that were aware, 33% indicated high cost as a key barrier to using the service. However, as the Olympic mobile TV experience demonstrates, if a mobile operator offers content that is of high interest to its customers, prices it attractively and then promotes this effectively, service adoption will visibly rise.

In drawing content from the Olympic Games, mobile operators offering the content were able to leverage a global brand recognised by millions, and provide compelling, entertaining content to attract a mainstream audience.

The mobile industry must now follow this example and continue to work with big brands and global events to ensure that mobile content appeals to and is marketed at mainstream consumers.

With any service available to customers on a bundled mobile TV package, users need to be made aware of the costs they are paying for upfront and what content they can access.

As bundled packages enable a one-off monthly payment by the consumer, they provide a very transparent billing method which enables the user to access mobile TV or video services safe in the knowledge there will be no additional surprise costs on their monthly bill.

In Europe, these bundled data packages are becoming a common element of post-paid mobile contracts, but with an estimated 60% of owners on pre-pay tariffs, billing for mobile TV services is still unclear for most customers.

Coupled with horror stories of enormous data bills, many are cautious and inclined to stay clear of mobile content services.

Consumers need to be educated on what they can and can’t get within their mobile packages, so they understand how to use the services available to them.

Operators can help build awareness of these services by working with content providers to offer interesting, relevant content with clear, attractive pricing to ensure customers feel ‘safe’ when using these services.

In addition to bundled services, much has been made of the potential for ad-funded content to supplement saturated revenue streams and increase mobile TV adoption.

Research from QuickPlay indicates that the consumer market is ready for ad-funded content if they receive a benefit in return, with 78% of mobile phone owners prepared to watch targeted advertisements for access to reduced rate video content on mobile.

It has been established that a great percentage of mobile video is consumed on an ad-hoc basis when filling dead-time. To encourage potential users to snack on content, operators can use advertisements to offset the cost of viewing that content – a factor which can encourage consumer adoption.

There are many factors in increasing consumer awareness of mobile TV services in the public domain but if operators bear the above factors in mind, they will maintain and improve the impressive Olympic standard set this month.