Mobile TV will fail to take off this year, as consumers cut the amount of cash they spend on their mobile phones, according to a major new report by Deloitte.(that's according to Brand Republic).
Less than 1% of the UK population currently watches mobile TV and Deloitte estimates that the figure will fail to increase this year, due to consumers cutting back on "discretionary spending"
This is on the back of reports that Nokia is disappointed by low impact of DVB-H.
It seems to me that Mobile TV is one of those acitivities which is always about to explode "... next year". I recall being at a European conference about mobile TV in 2007 (James Cridland and I were there to explain why radio should have a place in their hearts - not sure we succeeded). The organisers asked for a show of hands from "everyone who thinks they'll make money in mobile TV in the next five years". If any hands went up, there were no more than two sheepish ones.
So while the EU's Viviene Redding is a fan of DVB-H, the mobile networks are being... er ... cautious. Okay - O2 are bidding for L-Band spectrum, but maybe mobile broadband is in their minds more. (Don't know, to be honest)
Seems to me they don't want the other networks to make a success of mobile TV and leave them behind. But none of them are anywhere near making it a success even on their existing 3G networks. They're investigating using the 3G spectrum they already have using novel techniques like TDTV. They know that there's money to be made if we can all be tempted to watch premium content on those "5 minutes to waste" occasions. But, in between updating your facebook/twitter, and checking your email, that will only work if the content is wonderful...
Then there are the rights. Nobody is watching. Rights holders want to charge a fortune for anything worth watching. The result; mobile TV will continue to be "next year's big thing".
(If you're reading this in the year 2014, and mobile TV is everywhere, I'm sorry!)
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