HAMPSHIRE, United Kingdom-Mobile TV subscriptions could reach 65 million worldwide by the end of 2010, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The report predicts streamed services will account for 56 percent of customers and 51 percent of revenues during that timeframe. However, the rollout of mobile broadcast TV services at the end of the decade should result in broadcast subscriptions and revenues overtaking streaming TV by 2012, according to Juniper.
“Except in Korea, where services were launched in May, broadcast TV via the mobile is very much at the drawing board,” said Windsor Holden, the report’s author. “We still have a number of different standards jockeying for position. When a standard is finally selected, you have to find spectrum. When you have spectrum, you then have to build a dedicated network.”
“While all the technological issues are being resolved, you have to put together a viable content package,” added Holden. “And at the present time, we have no clearly defined value chain: So who will provide the services? The broadcasters? The operators? An aggregator? Quite clearly a number of options are possible, but these need to be finalized prior to the licensing process.”
Holden also noted participants will have to wait several years before realizing a return on their initial investments.
“In the U.S., for example, Qualcomm and Crown Castle have envisaged rollout costs alone of $1.8 billion between them,” said Holden. “It’s unlikely that cumulative subscription revenues from the U.S. will even reach the $1 billion mark until four years of commercial service.”
