A look at the growth of mobile TV worldwide

I’ve discussed the concept of mobile TV a lot of times in this blog and ever since Verizon and AT&T launched their mobile TV service, I see a lot of debates going on in the internet and people taking sides for or against mobile TV. Just so you know, this concept doesn’t start and end in the United States. It’s a global phenomenon and let me broaden the horizon for you.

Italy, which is considered one of the most developed mobile phone markets in Europe, is also the leader when it comes to mobile TV in Europe. There are a dozen channels available in mobile TV in Italy and there is a loyal user base of more than one million subscribers who pay 19 Euros every month.

In Switzerland, there is a 100-second news broadcast on mobile phones and it is very popular with mobile users there. There are more than 40,000 people who watch this TV news broadcast in their mobile phones every day. People here can get up to 20 channels in their mobile phones and they pay around 13 Swiss Francs every month.

Japan is the undisputed leader when it comes to mobile TV. There are around 20 million mobile phones in Japan which are equipped with TV receivers. South Korea, another market leader in Asia, has more than 8 million mobile phones equipped with TV receivers. India, with more than 250 million mobile users, has also shown a strong inclination for mobile TV and is considered a potential market in the near future. Thanks to these markets, mobile TV in Asia is growing rapidly and is miles ahead of the U.S. market.

This apart, countries like Britain, France, and Germany have plans to start mobile TV service this year.

Do you see the complete picture? There are people all over the world who pay money for mobile TV and it’s considered one of the most successful revenue-generating services for operators.

So, in my opinion, mobile TV will not remain a niche service in the U.S. for long. I think it’s a pretty useful service for people who are always on the move and it will find its takers eventually. Also, with mobile advertisers eyeing mobile TV, we could soon have free, ad-supported TV on our mobile phones, just like television.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile TV.

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Mobile Marketing Association to come up with guidelines for mobile TV and mobile video

The Mobile Marketing Association has been working on formulating a set of advertising guidelines for mobile TV and mobile video and it’s expected to be launched this October.

The guidelines include banner dimensions, file sizes, file formats, and other things related to mobile video and mobile TV. MMA’s global mobile advertising committee comprises five groups – mobile web, text, MMS, downloadable, and video and television.

The group discussed the various features of mobile TV and mobile video and came up with different ideas to regulate mobile advertising in these areas. MMA is said to have recommended that click through ads should play either before the launch of a mobile application or at the end, not when the customer is viewing the application.

I think the MMA has done a brilliant job by setting up guidelines for mobile advertisers. Viewing ads while watching something interesting is not at all good, and it’s even more so in the case of a mobile phone. With the kind of growth that mobile advertising industry is expected to have, guidelines such as this one are absolutely necessary to make sure mobile advertisers stay within the line.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Marketing Association.

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Cox to enter the cellphone advertising market

Cox, a name well known in the television media, is preparing to enter the world of cellphone advertising. Cox is usually known for its television advertisements, but has decided to take its advertising program one step further into the cell phones of customers, thanks to the enormous hype that cellphone advertising has created in the market recently.

As you might know, user participation increases exponentially in any TV program if there is an option for the users to take part in the program through their cellphone. The best example for that would be the American Idol. The country saw millions of text messages being sent to choose their favorite as the American Idol and the program sponsors were simply amazed at the response. Similarly, Cox ran an advertising program for gourmet pizza chain Vocelli on TV last September, where users were asked to send text messages to get discount coupons. When users sent text messages, Cox replied them back with an offer in which customers can opt in to the Vocelli mobile club in order to be able to additional discounts and other offers. The user participation, needless to say, was higher than usual and more than half of the subscribers who sent text messages went on to opt in to the mobile club. This has given enormous confidence to Cox and it’s soon planning to venture into the world of cellphone advertising on a much larger scale.

The interesting thing to be noted here is, Cox partnered with Ping Mobile to run this advertising campaign. As more and more companies are interested in cellphone advertising, small cellphone advertising companies have a great chance to tie up with them and deliver their advertising solutions on a much larger scale.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

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