Mobile TV, of sorts, has been around for a few years now, by which I mean the various streaming services pioneered by the likes of 3 UK and Sky Mobile. The next generation of Mobile TV is broadcast, such as MediaFlo and DVB-H, as used by 3 Italia and a number of broadcasters worldwide. There’s huge interest in broadcast Mobile TV, which is hoped by many operators and broadcasters to be the next big thing.

I worked in Mobile TV this past year for Motorola. My role was to look at the ecosystem issues and find various loci of innovation, particularly in the area of convergence. This has two dimensions: unicast with broadcast, or on-demand with real-time - and mobile with fixed (IPTV).

The unicast/broadcast question obviously appeals to mobile operators. Naturally, they wish to exploit their existing mobile network as much as possible, so any services that can blend unicast with broadcast are of interest. Just to be clear, the reason that operators need broadcast is to increase capacity (and quality). It’s perfectly possible to stream video over 3G data networks. It’s even possible to stream over 3G circuits - the video capability of 3G networks is massively underutilised. However, try to support more than a few users in a cell and the service rapidly breaks down due to lack of bandwidth. Therefore, from a scalability point of view, switching to a broadcast technology makes sense.

However, from a user experience point of view, broadcast is possibly going in the wrong direction! This is where the convergence with fixed networks comes in. What we are seeing in the fixed world is a gradual transition to on-demand services, both for traditional content (i.e. TV and movies) and, more dramatically, for user-generated content. There is also an increasing category of content that falls somewhere in between, which is podcasts. There are lots of podcasts now from the big content providers, like the BBC, and lots of podcasts from individuals or small outfits, but of an exceptionally high quality in terms of content and production. The defining attribute is that podcasts are free.

Downloadable media is increasing exponentially, which now includes HD video, some of which I regularly download into my Apple TV. But where does this fit with Mobile TV? Firstly, it’s important to realise that the killer app for mobile is killing time, as elegantly pointed out by usability guru Jakob Nielsen in his prescient WAP usability study (which most operators ignored at the time). Whether it’s tapping out a text, playing a game, fiddling with ringtones, listening to songs, or surfing the mobile(?) web, the context for lots of our mobile usage is killing time whilst waiting. Sitting in any airport departure lounge is a good proof point. In fact, just fiddling with our mobiles is fast becoming the ’smoking’ of the new generation - an essential displacement activity to calm the nerves. This tactile element of the experience is supposedly what led Motorola to design the PEBL - designed simply to be held.

There is no doubt that managing and accessing content is so much easier online via a desktop PC with a broadband connection. Although Apple has their iTunes WiFi store, accessible via iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s a very limited experience compared with the desktop client. It is my view that side-loading of content from the PC to the mobile is going to be the dominant means to access mobile media content. With so much digital content available online and easily loaded onto the mobile, users will increasingly find a plentiful library of fresh content on their mobiles. This will mirror the increasing deployment of on-demand video services (IPTV) in the home - users will be accessing content that they will watch both at home and on the move.

Therefore, when it comes to killing time, users won’t be short of digital media on their phone. More importantly, downloaded content will be accessible on-demand, unlike the outdated time-slot nature of broadcast content on DVB-H. The added advantage is that precious battery will be spent where it counts, which is enjoying the content, not accessing it. Battery life with DVB-H isn’t great.

The best experience overall will probably combine side-loading with over-the-air on-demand. There is still a very strong case for broadcast Mobile TV for live events, especially sports. Some broadcasters with heavy sports revenues can probably make the business case for mobile broadcast. Also, in markets where the penetration of fixed broadband PC access is low compared to mobile penetration, broadcast Mobile TV will serve such markets well, although the increased deployment of WiMAX, fixed and mobile, will probably have an impact.

Technorati Tags: Mobile TV, MediaFlo, DVB-H, IPTV, podcasts, HD video, Jakob Nielsen, iPhone, side-loading, broadcast