mobile tv viewing
I’ve been a bit irregular with postings the last 2 weeks. My first blogging slump. Ouch. The excuse is that I was working on some content for online and mobile platforms. Moving image that is. TV, you know the thing.
Good fun. But then I saw these statistics on mobile viewing from the BBC. A peak of 580 viewers per day isn’t overly impressive now, is it? Especially not for an institution like the BBC.
Two, three years ago, I curated a lot of great content for mobile platforms and helped launching a few ‘channels’ that were broadcast/simulcast for mobile technology. It was pretty successful I was told. I never got to know what that meant in absolute figures, but everyone seemed happy.
But where has this gone since then? A few weeks ago, a friend who works in business consultancy pointed me to Jacques Bughin, a media consultant his company uses a lot. And his thoughts on the whole mobile thing just seem ancient right now. Where are the ‘mobisodes’ from yesteryear? Where are those music videos created specifically for mobile viewing? Is anyone still watching?
The figures from the BBC seem to suggest the audience is switching off. But is that because of crap content? Or tedious technology?
On a content-level mobile tv is quite often a cut-down version of existing programs. I can imagine people logging on when it’s exclusive content though. I remember the UK network 3 getting an exclusive premiere on a Robbie Williams video and I’m sure that did very well.
But I personally think technology is inadequately developed (yet) to get a major impact. I just tried accessing some video footage from the Albarn & Hewlett produced opening titles for the BBC Olympics coverage. And gave up. Too slow, too messy interface,… And with mobile phones moving more and more towards computers (IPhone et al), wouldn’t people expect to watch things ‘online’, i.e. decent quality at decent speeds? Or not watch at all.
I’m sure there are good examples of mobile video, but I don’t know them. And I definitely think it’s an interesting aspect of the media. So if anyone has any suggestions on good blogs/websites about mobile communication, then do let me know.
6 Comments, Comment or Ping
erwin blom
NOS (Netherlands) video figures Olympics:
8 million live views in 8 days
3 million on demand views in 8 days
63.000 concurrent viewers on peakmoments
433.000 unique visitors peak in first 8 days
Aug 17th, 2008
grr
Impressive figures. No surprise that the Dutchies are doing it right again.
So yes: this unique, exclusive, live content works.
I would love to see some figures from the BBC on their Olympic mobile coverage.
Aug 18th, 2008
Wessel van Rensburg
Rhythm New Media had close to 90,000 streams per day (if my memory serves me correct) when they launched their service with 3 in the UK.
Weather report video clips were by far the best performers you’d be dissapionted to hear.
News did well, news of all sorts, celebrity news, even business news and of course sport. And current movie trailers.
The take home lesson for me. Mobile is even a more ‘current’ platform than the PC.
You’d rather wait and watch something on a bigger screen if your looking to be entertained.
It’s the informtional value of video that works on mobile.
Aug 25th, 2008
grr
@Wessel: Great to hear indeed. But it doesn’t surprise me really.
Did you guys have any info on viewing habits? I presume it’s not those 14-year old kids checking the weather forecast.
And have you seen this? http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-mobile-ad-firm-rhythm-new-media-pulls-out-of-uk-and-india/. RNM has just left the UK. Seems like the sums don’t add up just yet.
Aug 27th, 2008
Wessel van Rensburg
Weather was skewed towards an older male demographic, but was surprisingly high on other demographics including young ones.
Celebrity news was very high for females and received very little male viewership. sport very male. So no surprises. On the whole the service was consumed by a lot of young people, but less so than we expected as 3 has a very young audience relative to other UK mobile networks.
I saw lots of Rhythm people updating their statusses on LinkedIn and was wondering what was going on. Surfed to their site and their was no announcement, but now it makes sense.
It is bit surprising since the mobile market in the UK is very mature, and so is the advertising market. My guess is that the company is refocussing its efforts in he light of the iTunes launch. Perhaps they will become an iTunes and Android app player.
On the other hand this just highlight the difficulty of making money of advertising on the mobile.
One thing is sure is that it has (and in the UK had) a lot of very smart employees.
Aug 28th, 2008
Wessel van Rensburg
Apologies iTunes should have read iPhone 3G launch.
Aug 28th, 2008
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