US and Japan to Lead Mobile TV Market
US and Japan to Lead Mobile TV Market

US and Japan to Lead Mobile TV Market

US and Japan to Lead Mobile TV Market

SoftBank announced that it has established a new company, Mobile Media Planning Corp., which aims to conduct technical research on MediaFLO and plan new services utilizing such technology. Developed by QUALCOMM, the system enables distribution of multichannel broadcast optimized for mobile communications, including Clipcast, and distribute digital terrestrial broadcasts to mobile terminals and other devices.

This technology is considered as one of the three major technologies following satellite broadcast and 1Seg broadcast, and it enables real time broadcast of 20 channels on one TV channel portion of frequency band (6MHz). We interviewed MediaFlo’s Ali Zamari at Qualcomms booth during the recent Wireless Japan trade-show in Tokyo.

Mobile Media Planning plans to provide digital-tv broadcast distribution services for mobile terminals and other devices utilizing such technology for the development of mobile communications business of the SOFTBANK Group. Also, Mobile Media Planning will work on the study of technical potential of MediaFLO, by participating in the activities organized by external parties such as the VHF/UHF-band efficient use working group in Information and Communications Council, which discusses the proposal of multimedia broadcast technology including MediaFLO, and FLO Forum where supporting enterprises from around the world, such as QUALCOMM, participate.

A recent report from analyst firm Juniper Research (Via: MarketWire) predicts that Broadcast Mobile TV will reach revenues of $11.7bn worldwide by 2011. Japan is predicted to lead the market with revenues reaching $2.9bn and the US will follow closely at $1.8bn. The UK is also predicted to be a key market at $989m. Although Japan is initially offering a free service on its ISDB-T ‘One Seg’ network, Juniper Research predicts that it will start charging for the service in 2008. Japan, US and UK markets are prime breeding grounds for mobile television viewing mainly because of the large appetite for TV viewing.

South Korea has had a head start in broadcast Mobile TV with its DMB efforts, Japan and the US will overtake it in terms of the number of subscribers, purely based on the larger mobile subscriber base. Of the overall broadcast Mobile TV subscriber market Japan, US and South Korea will make up 39%, with the other major markets being Germany, Italy, UK, India and China, making up 36% by 2011. Juniper Research has short listed 26 key countries/regions around the world for broadcast Mobile TV services.