Comment: Mobile TV is heading for a fall

By Paul Trotter

Posted on 14 Jul 2006 at 11:11

Player (iMP) project. The broadcaster's technical trials were able to prove that peer-to-peer worked as a delivery mechanism for on-demand television, but the whole process was still held up by copyright holders' demands. This will prove equally difficult for mobile TV, as programme makers have been used to selling content based upon it being delivered on one platform only. And there's no point having a product that provides good enough picture quality if the broadcasts aren't worth watching in the first place.

So now is the time to keep an eye out for the false promises of mobile TV marketeers. Remember BT's 'Surf the net, surf the BT Cellnet' slogan? That advertising trick led many to believe they could access the full internet on their WAP-enabled mobile phone,
and yet the mobile web of 2000 was an over-hyped collection of static, text-based clumsy screens.

As with the first generation of the mobile internet, you'd probably be best served peaking over a friend or colleague's shoulder at their mobile TV handset before signing up. Fully fledged, live TV on your mobile would be a welcome distraction for many commuters, but don't be distracted from the fact that it's unlikely to live up to the over-inflated promises.