The number of Americans that will be accessing video content over their mobile phones will increase to 74 million by 2015 and will create data traffic of as much as 145 terabytes every month according to a report into US mobile video and TV recently released by Coda Research Company.
As well as mobile phones a total of 24 million US users will view video content using a mobile broadband connection creating a further monthly data usage of 311 Terabytes and by 2015 the number of Americans accessing TV content though ATSC M/H will rise to 18 million.
Devices, content and cost will be the three areas that ATSC M/H will hit FLO according to the author of the report, Dr Steve Smith who advised “FLO TV and its devices are prohibitively expensive, especially when compared with free ATSC M/H content. Competition between mobile phone manufacturers will drive down costs of ATSC M/H devices and provide a wider variety of devices for users. In terms of content, although FLO TV tries to differentiate itself from ATSC M/H by showing programs from national networks, many of the local networks available via ATSC offer such programs. We therefore see these standards as competitive, not complementary.”
Although broadcast mobile TV and video through carrier networks will exist side by side, the report argues that more niche programs, greater content variety and more control available through mobile video will allow its user growth to increase more steeply.
The growth, however, will not be exponential but will be more linear advised Smith saying “Viewing video on small devices out of home is new. It’s different from cameras and MP3 players on phones because people were already taking photos and listening to music on other devices whilst out and about. Nevertheless, mobile phones are things people always carry with them and use for a variety of activities – texting, social networking, mobile web and so on. The challenge for service providers is to create the kinds of services people want and to help people make the transition from what they are currently doing on their phones to something entirely new.”
Source – Press-Releases.Techwhack