Another missive from Peter Sells, our reporter at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona.
Noticeably absent this year are the mobile TV companies. They’re still here of course flogging their wares from the less high profile (less expensive) stands, but its no longer the hot topic. Mobile TV is not like TV on your mobile, it’s a painful experience that relies on patience, good eyesight and a commitment to consuming content that only exists in business plans. If your telly took 20 seconds to buffer after you turned it on or changed channel, consumed power so you could only watch 40 mins before it died, and the picture regularly froze up, then you wouldn’t get addicted to Eastenders.
The Nokia N96 - which comes with DVB-H as standard (and even a kick-stand to help you watch it)
So the existing tech solutions are one problem. Nokia believe that using cellular tecnology is inappropriate and that a TV broadcast needs to use broadcast standards. That’s why they will plan to include DVB-H (a version of digital telly - “freeview for your handset”) in 400 million handsets over the next four years. The first of these is the N96 and when you see it in action you realise if mobile TV will ever reach a mass audience, broadcast technology is the only option.
Unfortunately in the broadcast world there is very little room for an operator, and they are going to be loathe to sell handsets that support killer services they can’t monetize, and that further enhance Nokia’s position as a D2C content player.
But there will be demand for handsets as good as the N96 and the operators won’t be able to ignore it.
Peter Sells.
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