3 Italia hails growth of its mobile TV service

By Eric Sylvers, International Herald Tribune

Published: July 20, 2006

MILAN The Italian cellphone company 3 Italia said Thursday that its mobile television service attracted 111,000 clients in the first six weeks after it was introduced June 5 to coincide with the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany.


3 Italia is the first company in Europe to roll out commercially a mobile television service based on a technology called DVB-H, for Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld. Many analysts say DVB-H will become the dominant technology for broadcast mobile television because it is backed by Nokia, the largest maker of cellphones.

DVB-H television signals can be captured by as many users as are within range of a transmitter, much like traditional over-the-air TV broadcasting. Other mobile TV technology available in Europe relies on the third-generation cellphone networks, which can handle a limited number of users per transmitter.

"We didn't expect the numbers to be this high, and we also didn't expect the strong growth trend to continue even after the conclusion of the World Cup," Vincenzo Novari, chief executive of 3 Italia, said by telephone. "Everybody has been saying that mobile television has been overhyped, but so far the vast majority of users have been satisfied with the service, and this bodes well for the future of mobile television."

Though some analysts have given rosy predictions on how many people will begin watching television on their mobile phones, the consumer appetite for viewing sports and other programming on tiny screens has remained an unknown. Datamonitor, a research firm, predicts that more than 69 million people worldwide will subscribe to mobile television services by 2009, generating total revenue of $5.5 billion.

3 Italia is aiming to have 500,000 mobile television clients by the end of the year and forecasts that Italy will have 10 million people, almost 20 percent of the population, using the service of the various cellphone companies by 2010.

"I'm convinced that the trend we have seen in Italy will be repeated in many other countries when mobile television is introduced," Novari said.

Italy's hypercompetitive mobile phone market has helped keep the country on the cutting edge of many cellular technologies, including mobile television.

While 3 Italia is chalking up clients and its domestic rivals are ready to begin doing the same soon, in many other countries considered to be fertile ground for mobile broadcast television, like Britain, the frequencies needed to make the service possible have not yet been assigned to cellphone service providers.

South Korea, the first country to have mobile broadcast TV, uses a technology called Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, or DMB. TU Media, a South Korean service provider, signed up its first 100,000 clients in three months, twice as long as 3 Italia needed.

"This is an excellent starting point," Novari said. "The big question has been whether this is a niche service or if it will become something for the masses - and the first signs so far are that this is a service that appeals to the masses."

3 Italia clients can pay for the television service by the day, week or half- year. The service costs €3, or $3.80, if paid by the day, and comes out to about €1.50 a day when paid by the week. The cost drops to about 50 cents a day for six months. Novari said that most usage has been outdoors and that 40 percent of subscribers used it during office hours.

3 Italia's television service covers 2,000 of the biggest Italian cities and towns and about 40 are being added each day. It offers nine TV channels.