High hopes for mobile TV

514 million people will be watching broadcast video on handsets by 2011, according to ABI Research.

The number of subscribers for TV services delivered over a mobile phone is expected to soar worldwide in the next five years, a market research firm said Wednesday.

By 2011, the number of people watching broadcast video on the handsets is projected to reach 514 million from 6.4 million at the end of last year, ABI Research said. Demand for so-called "unicasting," such as video on-demand, is expected to be much smaller.

"Broadcast will be the preferred method of access to mobile video for most people," ABI analyst Ken Hyers said in a statement. "Unicast will remain part of the mix, for customers who want to access video-on-demand, but ABI Research believes that the majority of subscription services will be for broadcast content, and that unicast-only subscriptions will not be a significant part of the market."

Japan and South Korea are the early adopters of mobile TV services, but Europe and North America are not expected to remain in the rear. In the United States, three companies are planning to introduce mobile video broadcast services in the next 12 to 18 months. Those firms include MediaFLO, owned by Qualcomm Inc.; Hiwire, owned by Aloha Partners; and Modeo, owned by Crown Castle. MediaFLO plans to launch services in the fourth quarter, with the others following suit in 2007.

Success in the market, however, will depend on partnerships the services sign with major wireless carriers, ABI said. MediaFLO has signed Verizon Wireless, but the others have yet to announce deals.