Japan Tuning In to Mobile TV

TechNewsWorld reports that Japan is "about to gain access to TV to go with mobile handsets capable of displaying digital television broadcasts. One Seg, a service that launched in South Korea last year, will supply regular broadcast TV offerings." Backing the service is NTT DoCoMo, rival KDDI and Japanese television companies Nippon, Fuji and Asahi TV.

According to the article, the "Japan-wide One Seg service will roll out free while operators get a sense of the market and demand for it.

Yankee Group Analyst Mike Goodman said, "Why do I want to pay on my mobile device when it's a smaller screen, the experience isn't as good, and I can get it somewhere else? You've got to give somebody something of value."

Goodman opined that the "lack of compelling content is to blame for the lackluster results of Verizon's V Cast, a fee-based service that delivers video to Verizon's mobile phone customers."

Roger Entner at Ovum believed that "compelling content will be the key to success for mobile TV,, adding that in the U.S., much of the video offerings available currently are limited to clips." Entner added that "mobile TV is still very new, however, and technology as well as content is expected to improve."

Entner concluded, "We're at version 1.0 here."