The Finnish Mobile TV Pilot

Thomas Husson | September 02, 2005, 09:58 AM

Nokia has just published the results of its Finnish mobile TV pilot, conducted in partnership with mobile operator TeliaSonera and media companies (MTV, Channel4, YLE) between March and June 2005 among 500 users.
58% said that they believed broadcast mobile TV services would be popular. I am not sure how useful such a stat really is. More interestingly, 41% of pilot participants would be willing to purchase mobile TV services. 50% even said 10 euros per month was not too expensive a fee. I would like to see the combination of the 2 questions : would you want to pay 10 euros / month to benefit from mobile TV services ? Unfortunaltely, I do not think this result is yet publicly available...

Even among those ready to buy, there is a significant difference between users saying they would be ready to buy the service when acquiring a next new mobile and those would buy it when its usage has become more common. Nonetheless, such results are pretty encouraging for the industry as a whole. The question is now: when will the usage become more common? When will affordable handsets become available, when will the spectrum be available, and when will industry stakeholders agree on the business model? I guess we will have a commercial offer ready for the Football (sorry for my US readers, I meant soccer...) World Cup next year in Germany. That does not mean it will become mass market any time soon. But still, that's a really encouraging trial. I had the chance to test the service in Helsinki last month and I have to admit I was really surprised by the quality of the service. I thought I would spend 5 minutes on the tiny screen. I ended looking at French news for 20 minutes in a row.

The good news is that there are plenty of new DVB-H trials and results to come : in the UK with the O2 Oxford trial, in Spain with Telefonica Moviles, in the Netherlands with KPN, in France with SFR and Canal+ but also with Orange, Bouygues Telecom, TPS and Sagem.

Some regulators are even fostering other technologies. Arcep (ex ART), the French regulatory body is also pushing for a DMB trial (the technology already in use in Korea). Samsung, LG and Bouygues Telecom are involved. Alcatel is also rumored to have some plans based on the DMB technology. DAB will also be tested in the UK by Virgin. And Flo is the US technology from Qualcomm...

We are not at the same level of norm fragmentation as for Blu-ray vs HD-DVD, but still I am quite sure such a fragmentation will inhibit the uptake of the market. Still, from a regulatory and thus neutral point of view, Arcep made a right and wise choice.