Stuttgart, Germany – According to InfoCom’s latest study release on mobile broadband services and innovative applications, the number of mobile TV users continues to grow but there is still no proven business model so far. Japan, South Korea and Italy are the leading markets for broadcast-based mobile TV services but mobile TV subscriber growth in these markets is driven mainly by free or partly-free access and rather large handset availability. In fact, ad-based free-to-air services are dominant in Japan and South Korea whereas most of all other markets are dominated by subscription based services, which range from €1.00 to €17.00 a month (for as low as 2 and as high as 60 TV channels); though, in these markets, the subscriber base is not taking up.

Third-party service providers ceased commercial operations in Japan and Germany mainly due to a non-cooperative attitude of the local mobile operators as well as a rather limited choice of both channels and handsets. Mobile operators are in general rather reluctant to collaborate with broadcasters and third-party service providers although some are beginning to open towards partnerships.

The on-going battle on standards – namely streaming over 3G against broadcasting – is actually leading to market dissemination. Currently, most mobile TV offers in Western Europe are streamed over 3G, although there is a certain shift towards broadcast standards, especially DVB-H against others, such as 1-Seg, MediaFLO, T-DMB or S-DMB. Content generally offered are news, sports and adult contents, which are particularly adapted for mobile viewing. So far the market for “made-for-mobile” content (such as mobisodes for TV shows) is rather small.

About mobile TV services: This release about mobile TV services is extracted from “Mobile Broadband  – Unwrapping the trends”. This section provides an analysis of Mobile TV services worldwide. The report shows leading markets for mobile TV and pinpoints the factors for subscriber growth. The main deal-breakers for mobile TV services are identified through an analysis of unsuccessful services. The report compares the main mobile TV standards, underline strengths and weaknesses and identifies market drivers and obstacles for mobile TV services.

About InfoCom: InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage.

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Stuttgart, Germany – According to InfoCom’s latest release of its Broadband Monitoring Service, at end-2008, there were more than 122m broadband connections in the EU-25 representing over 18% increase from the previous year, with prices and access speeds, which have improved significantly. Broadband penetration per household grew to over 62% (+9% YoY). xDSL is still the dominant broadband technology with 74% of the total market followed by cable modem with 14%. 2008 was characterised by a certain uptake of mobile broadband, which increased by 4 percentage points to over 10% in 2008. FTTx connections still represent only 2% of the total broadband market.

Mobile broadband nearly doubled its subscription base in one year from 6.5m to 12.6m in 2008, showing a certain uptake in Europe thanks to the impact of a number of factors, among which price cuts, the offering of flat-rate plans and improved HSPA network coverage. Austria and Finland are the clear market leaders with a relatively high penetration rates compared to the other countries.

The total broadband market in the EU-25 will continue to grow over the next five years despite many countries are reaching saturation levels especially for fixed broadband. The strongest drivers for growth will be fixed broadband for rural areas and, especially, mobile broadband.

About Broadband Quarterly Monitoring Service: The Broadband Quarterly Monitoring is currently available on a yearly subscription basis. It provides a large amount of indicators – among which ULL lines, DSL & FTTx, CaTV and cable modem subscribers, ARPU – for over 30 countries worldwide, with forecasts until 2012. Broadband Quarterly Monitoring is only one of several Quarterly Monitoring Services that InfoCom provides. To know more, please contact us.

About InfoCom: InfoCom is a market research and consultancy company with over 20 years experience providing strategic analyses and planning assistance to stakeholders in the telecommunications, IT and multimedia industries. InfoCom’s independent and fact-based analyses highlight trends and opportunities, supporting decision makers to understand market dynamics in order to improve their competitive advantage

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