Live Issue... Media firms look to mobile television

Judging by the number of deals completed recently, mobile TV is this year’s must-have platform for the region’s media owners and content providers. 

Within Asia alone, Disney-ABC International Television Asia-Pacific linked with Korea’s SK Telecom to provide full-length movies and TV series to subscribers; TV5Monde extended its mobile TV platform to 40 countries in Asia and the Middle East; 8TV in Malaysia launched mobile web portals for its TV programmes; and 3 Australia launched a niche Chinese-language mobile service.

The driver has been the rapid take-up of smartphones in recent months. The result is a media channel expected to grow rapidly - a new report from ABI Research predicts there will be more than 500 million mobile TV viewers by 2013 worldwide. To put that into context, the UN reported that there were 4.1 billion mobile broadband subscribers worldwide by the end of 2008. 

“People have better handsets, and that definitely helps, but now is a good time for mobile TV because the idea of new media gives us a lot more opportunities to make relevant programmes and link it to other popular platforms, like mobile Facebook,” says Julien Dutronic of TV5Monde Asia‘s distribution and marketing department. “The idea with this is to be able to use ‘pull marketing’ instead of ‘push marketing’ where users choose what they want. In this climate, the last thing people really need is push advertising.”

So is this a new channel for marketers? According to analysts, marketing via mobile TV can complement marketing efforts made online and on traditional TV. For the time being, marketers can place ads on mobile television using the usual modes of advertising on video, such as pre-roll, post-roll, on-screen branding and product placements. However, more sophisticated options will be available in the future, such as clickable videos and links.

Investing in mobile TV now makes sense, according to founder of TheTMSWay Frederick Saurat. “In a downturn economy there are opportunities to gain market share, and mobile, more than any media, offers ways to collect and manage data,” he says.

“If media firms can reach a good audience on mobile, it will become an opportunity to engage in conversation with the audience and deliver personal messages from the programme sponsors and advertisers, such as targeted and localised coupons. It will be a major asset in terms of data and ROI discussion with advertisers.”

However, there are caveats. For a start, mobile TV as a platform can vary hugely between markets. Howard Hunt, business development manager at The Hyperfactory, points to Tokyo, where mobile users often have long commutes to work and people have time to watch a 45-minute TV programme or even a film. The situation is different in Hong Kong, where commutes are shorter. 

So far, mobile TV as an ad channel has had mixed results. In South Korea, one of the most digitally advanced markets in the world, mobile TV broadcasters are considering cutting off their service on subway lines. They have to pay the subway operators for the right to broadcast on trains and in stations, but have found advertising revenue from the service to be unsteady, falling into debt as a result. The country’s six terrestrial mobile television companies will reportedly save 350 million won (US$225,750) each by dropping their underground coverage.

Colin Miles, EVP of iPop, says that marketers and media buyers looking to get in on mobile TV will still find it a “major challenge”, having to approach individual channels, phone makers and providers to see what compatibility rules apply.

Yet Dutronic insists the effort is worthwhile. In emerging markets, he argues, mobile TV can reach consumers marketers would otherwise struggle to find. He cites the streaming service that TV5Monde set up in the Ivory Coast. “We’re investigating a mobile portal in Asia that’s the same as we have in Africa. Consumers there don’t have broadband lines so mobile becomes a great compensating media,” he concludes. “This is something marketers can use.”


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