Two recent studies into mobile TV on 3G mobile phones have managed to produce rather inconclusive results concerning the willingness of the great British public to use the service and how much they’d be prepared to pay for it.
The preliminary findings of a trial by UK mobile phone operator O2 in Oxford revealed that the majority of users were overwhelmingly in favour of the service and would consider taking it up.
Around the clock live access to 16 TV channels was offered to 375 O2 users from a “wide range of demographics” in the 18-44 age band, in a trial carried out in partnership with broadcast technology company Arqiva.
The feedback seemed back-slappingly reassuring, with 83 per cent of the triallists “satisfied” with the service, and 76 per cent indicating they’d be keen to take up the service within 12 months.
Users were given specially adapted Nokia 7710 smartphones to view the DVB-H service in late September 2005.
Most users averaged around three hours TV a week, with some square eyed viewers clocking up as much as five hours a week.
Predictably, demand was highest in the mornings, lunchtimes and early evenings.
“This trial is further illustration that we are moving from a verbal only to a verbal and visual world in mobile communications,” said David Williams, O2’s technology chief.
“Broadcast TV for mobile can be a powerful new service that further enables users to personalise their mobile handset so that they can always have the content they want,”>Mixed results for BT and Virgin Mobile
The findings weren’t so rosy from BT and Virgin Mobile’s six month mobile TV trial.
Their 1,000 London-based users reported that they preferred to listen to digital radio rather than watch TV on their mobiles.
Moreover, they didn’t value the service particularly highly either, stating that they were only willing to shell out £5 a month for broadcasts, far short of the £10 monthly charge that operators were hoping to levy.
The BT/Virgin trial found that although people liked mobile TV – 59 per cent found it appealing or very appealing – there was more enthusiasm for digital radio (65 per cent.)
Moreover, triallists used the radio more (95 minutes a week, compared to 66 minutes of TV viewing) – a figure also reflected in the 02 trials, where 7 out of 10 users wanted digital radio channels to be included in a commercial service.
BT also discovered that news clips and favourite shows proved far more popular with viewers than mobile versions of shows.
The companies concerned will be keen to learn the lessons of these trials, as mobile multimedia services are vitally important to telecom operators looking to generate income and recoup their vast investments.
BT has cut short its ambitious plans to transform phone boxes into interactive Internet gateways.
In a public statement BT said, “There are no immediate plans to reduce the base of public multimedia kiosks other than moving to locations with better revenue earning potential and agreeing moves with our managed site owners.”
With the continuing exponential growth in Internet-enabled mobile phones and Wi-Fi, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of these all-singing phone terminals disappearing sooner rather than later.
We’ve been asked by Toshiba to hold this story for a couple of days. The site that originally published it, 
In a feast of digital convergence, Pantech & Curitel have announced the launch of their new multimedia-tastic PT-S160 phone.
The PT-S160 doubles up as a PMP (Portable Multimedia Player) and a satellite DMB receiver, with a sliding design only showing keys for DMB functions when closed.
The screen can be switched between landscape and portrait formats.
The makers claim a talk time of 300 minutes and a hefty standby time of 300 hours (although we’ve no idea how long you’ll get when watching TV).
Nokia has shunted out a new addition to their mid-range mobile portfolio with the new Nokia 6125 clamshell phone, offering stereo audio streaming over Bluetooth and FM Radio.
The quadband Nokia 6125 operates in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and provides a flight mode, which enables the user to work with calendar or listen to music while on the flight – although we’ve heard of airlines like Virgin insisting that you turn off all phones – including those with ‘flight modes.’
A huge photograph of the Orion Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has been released on the Internet. It is thought to be one of the largest images every produced.
Around two years ago the previous version of this image was also distributed online, but that was a ‘mere’ 6,200 x 6,200, at that time, also claimed at the ‘largest image ever’.
A new UK survey shows a dramatic increase in the use of picture messaging with WAP also growing in popularity.
When it comes to seeking mobile information online, it’s the geezers who are keenest to get their keypads rattling, with 38% accessing mobile Internet (WAP) sites compared to 26% of ladies.
Elsewhere, the Mobile Data Association have calculated that WAP page impressions are now approaching the 2 billion per month mark, with the Mobile Media Monitor revealing the most popular types of site on the mobile internet.
If you haven’t been to CES, you may have heard of the headache inducing noise, leg-ache inducing size and debt-ache inducing taxis and hotel rooms. We’ll save you all that and run over the highs and lows from this year’s CES 2006 show – shame we can’t help out with the glitzy lights of Las Vegas.
Satellite radios from XM and Sirius while Toshiba’s new HD-DVD playing Qosmio laptop gathered attention. It’s the first laptop to debut with a built-in HD-DVD player. The laptop can also play hi-def discs on your TV. The Qosmio is expected to hit the streets in March 2006 – months before the first Blu-Ray boxes are due out.
It looks great, but you’ll need deep pockets and an understanding partner to justify forking out $399 for a humble remote control.
Elsewhere, the PC World editors were less than impressed with the ongoing willy-waving battle for the biggest plasma screen, arguing that they’d prefer it if the manufacturer’s considerable energies were directed into producing affordable plasmas for regular folks.
Speculators with a wad of cash might like to consider convert said cash into an ITV plc share holding in the next few days some feel.
BT, despite having previously stated that it has no desire to enter the content market, needs to consider the competition from both BSkyB and a revitalised NTL. This could force BT’s into making an early move before other predatory companies come out of the shadows but will need to balance this against the cost of such an acquisition.
Unlike Sky, which is principally a broadcast platform owner and call centre operator, ITV actually has what companies with desires to be fully-grown media giants badly need; content and a fifty year plus heritage of making TV programmes.