IDC Sees Fast Growth For US Mobile Video

IDC has forecast a strong growth in people watching video (TV and films) on mobiles, despite listing some obvious obstacles (lack of handsets in the market, DRM considerations). “Although there are substantial challenges facing the commercial video and television marketplace from a network, handset, and content perspective, which will serve to keep penetration levels relatively low, IDC anticipates that annual revenue will still top the $3 billion mark by 2009,” said Lewis Ward, senior research analyst in IDC’s Wireless and Mobile Communications program. “With an ARPU approaching $10 per subscriber per month by that point, commercial video and television may well emerge as the single largest cell phone-oriented ARPU driver among consumers outside of voice.”

The analysts said that mid-2006 will see the introduction and adoption of specialized TV networks DVB-H and MediaFLO. The report also claims the number of minutes of mobile TV watched will double every year until 2009.

Related stories:
MipTV Gives Mobile TV A Big Push
Canadian Operators To Launch Mobile TV
The Next Frontier: Telephones for Toddlers

Comments have been disabled for this post