Mobile TV Revenue Still Modest

Mobile TV revenues will reach about $2.5 billion, and should reach closer to $3 billion in 2011, according to ABI Research.

In 2012, worldwide mobile TV revenues will approach $7 billion, exceeding $10 billion in 2013 and $15 billion in 2014 before reaching $20 billion in 2015.

Recent data from The Nielsen Company indicates the average amount of time U.S. mobile subscribers spent viewing video on a mobile phone per month was about three hours and 37 minutes.

LG TV-to-Mobile Platform Coming

LG Electronics Co. says it has developed a low-cost way for North American TV stations to transmit digital signals to cellphones and other portable gadgets.

LG's technology, which it calls MPH for mobile-portable-handheld, requires TV stations to buy relatively inexpensive add-on devices to their digital transmitters and the makers of cellphones and other portable devices to install a reception chip. The reception technology can also be incorporated into other chips in portable device.

Mobile Web More Like TV?

WhatsOpen.com offers a Web application that shows users nearby stores and operating hours. That's the sort of thing that a mobile advertising strategy can build off of. It also suggests something else about the nature of mobile Web services optimized for handhelds.

To wit, given the greater difficulty of interacting with the device, compared to a PC, maybe large portions of the experience need to be more like linear TV, as heretical as that may seem. Push useful data to me. Not all the time because that kills battery performance. But sense when it is likely I am looking at the screen. Show me something interesting.

Combine Real Simple Syndication with streaming. Maybe not streaming video, maybe streaming text. Adjust the feed based on my location. People talk about the difference between a lean-back experience and a lean-forward experience. Maybe we need to work on a stand-up experience: screen-based information and entertainment adapted for a user that is standing up and moving.