The total number of subscribers to mobile TV services worldwide will grow to 462 million, driven largely by the expansion of 3G networks, predicts ABI Research in its recently published study, “Mobile TV Services.”
The build-out of mobile video delivery networks and an increase in the amount of available content will also contribute to the market’s growth. According to Mike Wolf, research director for ABI Research, operators who make the investment of building out such networks will “continue to be rewarded by subscribers’ growing adoption rates, particularly as they upgrade to new video-capable handsets.” Consumers, he added, are finding the increasingly better experiences being developed for mobile TV to be enticing enough to demand such a service.
The report sees the Asia-Pacific region as the overall leader in the adoption of mobile video services. The number of subscribers to mobile video services in Asia-Pacific will grow from 24 million in 2007 to more than 260 million by 2012. High levels of penetration will occur in both Japan and South Korea, each a leading market in mobile video services, while China and India will both contribute significantly to the overall total because of very large subscriber populations, even though the overall penetration of video services will remain much lower than in more technologically advanced countries.
While South Korea and Japan will continue to be the worldwide leaders in this area, some countries in Western Europe will experience strong growth as well. Meanwhile, North American services will see a strong uptake as more services become available in 2008 with the launch of AT&T’s MediaFLO service, the expansion of Verizon Wireless’ MediaFLO subscriber base and the growth of on-demand mobile video services.
For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.
