Friday, July 3, 2009

3G – An Impetus To Mobile TV

3G, the third generation of mobile phone standards and technology, was formally launched in India by the country’s largest government-owned telecom service provider – BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), in February 2009. This latest mobile technology promises to enhance a user’s experience in mobile handsets through video screening of calls, video on demand, mobile surveillance, Live TV and movie downloads, among other services.

The launch of 3G is likely to usher in additional areas of entertainment avenues such as 3G mobile television and streaming video besides the usual mobile music downloads and mobile game downloads among others. Currently, mobile television is unavailable in India due to delays in spectrum allocation for the same. 3G could potentially be utilised by television networks in partnership with telecom operators to air ‘tv channels’ on the mobile phone.

Besides mobile television, video on demand is another potential revenue stream for television networks and mobile value added services providers. According to a recent article published in Business Standard, according to an online survey conducted by Nielsen, nearly 63 percent of the 43 million internet subscribers in India stream or download content on the computer or a portable device. The growth in internet penetration has resulted in an increase in consumption of online audio and video content. Neilson also reports tremendous increase in the consumption of music videos, movie trailers, TV shows, full length movies and video games – all of which can be availed on 3G-enabled handsets.

With 3G providing speeds greater than that of an average internet connection (2 Mbits vs. 0.64 Mbits) in India and nearly five mobile users for every internet user, content producers are bound to shift base to 3G, at least partially if not completely.

Further, Business Standard reported that an increasing number of users viewed the 2009 election news on Web TV; giving rise to the opinion that by 2015, users are likely to view poll-related news on their mobile handsets on a 3G network.

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