The idea of watching TV on a mobile handset is something that even five years ago would have been considered to belong to the realm of science fiction. As handsets move away from being simply mobile communications devices, however, and increasingly become mobile electronics devices and 'portals', which can be used to distribute data-based services, the notion of TV being broadcast to a phone is fast becoming a reality. A number of interesting developments have surfaced in the market recently and together they are beginning to indicate a trend that seems to be gaining traction.
The Korean market is leading the way: KTF already offers 11 terrestrial and cable channels through its fimm service targeted at CDMA2000 1xEV-DO users and in February 2004 KTF announced the formation of a partnership with digital satellite TV company SkyLife to offer access to 40 TV channels through its fimm service . The Samsung SCH-X820, which can access colour TV in real time over VHF/UHF channels has been offered by SK Telecom since June 2003. Meanwhile in Japan Vodafone made an announcement in April 2004 that it was offering the V401T handset from Toshiba with a built-in TV tuner, following the launch of its first such handset in December 2003 (the V601N handset provided by NEC). NTT DoCoMo is now conducting trials of TV over W-CDMA streaming services and Mitsubishi has recently announced the equivalent of a TV video recorder for mobile phones, the Mitsubishi Pyramid, which can record programmes on the TV for watching later over the mobile phone.
The Mitsubishi Pyramid measures in at around 115 x 115 x 70mm and it can be used to record from a TV or a video recorder. The device uses a memory card for the recording that can hold up to around two hours' worth of TV footage and it can be used with eight of NTT DoCoMo's Japanese handsets, and two of Vodafone's (these handsets feature video capability, which is required to be able to play the TV content). The concept is a clever one since it puts the onus on the customer to 'create' his or her own mobile content, thus meaning that the operators do not have to become involved in complex and expensive content deals or be concerned with optimisation of different content types for different protocols and devices. It also overcomes the problem of consumer fears over pricing of streamed or downloaded content for mobiles, while still managing to provide a service that allows users to access content they are interested in (this can be assumed since they have purposely recorded it) and that can provide entertainment to fill 'dead time'.
The drawback of such recorded content is, of course, the fact that the broadcast is not live and thus cannot exploit all the benefits of a user's mobility. As with many push messaging services (such as football results) one of the key benefits for subscribers of mobile news and entertainment services is the ability to be kept up to date while on the move. Similarly, the fact that the content must be recorded means that users would still miss favourite TV programmes while out and about. This is the gap that NTT DoCoMo and Sky Perfect are hoping to fill with their TV over W-CDMA product offering, field trials of which are currently being conducted in Japan. If it were to be launched following the trials, the service would offer streamed live TV content to a user's mobile, as well as offering archived video footage. According to reports, NTT DoCoMo will launch the service early in 2005 if results of the trial are favourable.
The TV-over-mobile phenomenon has its roots in Asia but is expanding into Europe and the Americas. Already in Chile Telefonica Movil is offering live TV from Television Nacional, while in Europe there are early signs of interest in the TV-over-mobile trend: Alcatel announced at the 3GSM World Congress 2004 in Cannes that it had struck a deal with cable TV channel Eurosport to develop sports TV content for mobile handsets and German multimedia content distributor Ohm TV has also, according to reports, sold a cartoon series to European and Australian mobile operators. Nokia is planning to launch its 7700 Multimedia handset in Q2 2004, which, with the aid of an accessory, is able to receive DVB-H digital TV broadcasts. How fast TV-over-mobile will be adopted in Europe is a very open question, and largely will depend on the success of such services in Korea and Japan and how far multimedia content services take off in Europe. Industry players would be wise, however, to 'stay tuned' on this space
