UK mobile applications company ROK Entertainment Group is seeing worldwide consumer preferences for mobile TV shifting toward non-traditional content, Bruce Renny, ROK's marketing director told BNamericas.
According to Renny, operators offering mobile TV need to start off including some brand name channels, however, people tend to only watch for a few minutes at a time rather than hours at a time. The challenge now for mobile operators and their partners is to combine three elements: the right services at the right price containing the right content.
"It's snacking rather than browsing. So content can get more experimental," Renny said.
"What people want is fast-paced, relevant, lively, instantly engaging content. That's why music videos work so well, particularly if it's on demand," Renny said.
Renny said ROK sees great potential in Latin America. This week the company announced it had deployed its third platform for units of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), this time in Uruguay. In October it launched with América Móvil's Dominican Republic unit Codetel and in September, 2008 it launched with the operator's Mexican unit Telcel.
Mobile TV has not been around for long, but the limited experience so far has still had to go through an evolution, in the type of consumer as much as the service itself. When ROK saw its first roll out in Thailand three years ago, consumers were almost exclusively male and were much older than the industry expected them to be, because most TV-enabled handsets and data plans were accessible mainly to urban professionals.
"That is changing now. The demographic is becoming more equally split between male and female, though it is still predominantly male, but it is also getting younger all the time as handset capability migrates, video enabled handsets are more affordable and the cost of data is not as onerous as it used to be," Renny said.
Many operators and content providers are introducing more female-oriented content.
On-demand comics and cartoons, Bollywood and cricket content is particularly popular in India. ROK has a partnership with Goal.com, a major portal for soccer content, and believes that the content has huge potential in Latin America, especially as the World Cup is only a few months away.
According to Renny, ROK Entertainment platforms can provide good quality video on 2.5G as well as 3G networks by compressing content, meaning that they are particularly suited to emerging markets where 3G is not as widespread as in developed markets.
Given the high penetration of mobile phones in Latin America, the company sees the majority of the population accessing mobile TV via the phone, because mobile technology is more affordable than computer technology.
"This space is gaining traction. Carriers are starting to see that if they want to raise Arpu, which they have to, and if they want to reduce churn, then they can no longer look to voice and text and simply growing their subscription base. They've got to look at subscription services and the obvious one is TV and other entertainment services," Renny said.
According to Renny, operators offering mobile TV need to start off including some brand name channels, however, people tend to only watch for a few minutes at a time rather than hours at a time. The challenge now for mobile operators and their partners is to combine three elements: the right services at the right price containing the right content.
"It's snacking rather than browsing. So content can get more experimental," Renny said.
"What people want is fast-paced, relevant, lively, instantly engaging content. That's why music videos work so well, particularly if it's on demand," Renny said.
Renny said ROK sees great potential in Latin America. This week the company announced it had deployed its third platform for units of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), this time in Uruguay. In October it launched with América Móvil's Dominican Republic unit Codetel and in September, 2008 it launched with the operator's Mexican unit Telcel.
Mobile TV has not been around for long, but the limited experience so far has still had to go through an evolution, in the type of consumer as much as the service itself. When ROK saw its first roll out in Thailand three years ago, consumers were almost exclusively male and were much older than the industry expected them to be, because most TV-enabled handsets and data plans were accessible mainly to urban professionals.
"That is changing now. The demographic is becoming more equally split between male and female, though it is still predominantly male, but it is also getting younger all the time as handset capability migrates, video enabled handsets are more affordable and the cost of data is not as onerous as it used to be," Renny said.
Many operators and content providers are introducing more female-oriented content.
On-demand comics and cartoons, Bollywood and cricket content is particularly popular in India. ROK has a partnership with Goal.com, a major portal for soccer content, and believes that the content has huge potential in Latin America, especially as the World Cup is only a few months away.
According to Renny, ROK Entertainment platforms can provide good quality video on 2.5G as well as 3G networks by compressing content, meaning that they are particularly suited to emerging markets where 3G is not as widespread as in developed markets.
Given the high penetration of mobile phones in Latin America, the company sees the majority of the population accessing mobile TV via the phone, because mobile technology is more affordable than computer technology.
"This space is gaining traction. Carriers are starting to see that if they want to raise Arpu, which they have to, and if they want to reduce churn, then they can no longer look to voice and text and simply growing their subscription base. They've got to look at subscription services and the obvious one is TV and other entertainment services," Renny said.
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