Jupiter: Finnish Mobile TV Pilot

Following on the heels of his post about Orange's Mobile TV Efforts in France, Jupiter's Thomas Husson blogs on Nokia's Finnish Mobile TV Pilot in conjunction with carrier TeliaSonera and media companies (MTV, Channel4, YLE). The pilot took place from March to June 2005 among 500 users. Husson thought the results were promising but not very conclusive due to the way they were presented and wished some of the questions were combined like "would you pay 10 euros a month for mobile TV services?" Here are the results:

• 58 percent believed broadcast mobile TV services would be popular
• 41% would be willing to purchase mobile TV services
• 50% said 10 euros per month was not too expensive a fee

As Husson notes:

Even among those ready to buy, there is a significant difference between users saying they would be ready to buy the service when acquiring a next new mobile and those would buy it when its usage has become more common. Nonetheless, such results are pretty encouraging for the industry as a whole. The question is now: when will the usage become more common? When will affordable handsets become available, when will the spectrum be available, and when will industry stakeholders agree on the business model? I guess we will have a commercial offer ready for the Football (sorry for my US readers, I meant soccer...) World Cup next year in Germany. That does not mean it will become mass market any time soon.

A lot of good questions. Of course the one key question that everyone in the industry wants to know and are willing to pay $$$ to find the answer is: Are people willing to pay for TV on their handsets? Husson mentions he had a chance to sample the service and "was really surprised by the quality." He then discusses the various trials taking place in Europe and the technologies at play.