U.K. mobile phone operator O2 announced Tuesday that the company’s initial findings prove users on the next-generation of 3G mobile phones would indeed pay for 24-hour live access to video programming.
The trial, which broadcast 16 channels to 375 viewers, reported an 83 percent satisfaction rating, with 76 percent saying they would purchase the service within a year if it became widely available.
“This trial is further illustration that we are moving from a verbal only to a verbal and visual world in mobile communications,” David Williams, O2's technology chief, said. “Broadcast TV for mobile can be a powerful new service that further enables users to personalize their mobile handset so that they can always have the content they want.”
At the same time, however, a separate study by BT and Virgin Mobile conducted in London returned less favorable results, with the vast majority of respondents saying they would prefer to listen to digital radio on their phones rather than watch TV, and that even if they could be convinced to subscribe to mobile broadcasting for their phone, few wanted to pay the roughly $20 per month service fee local operators are hoping for.
Both studies claim to have targeted a wide demographic in the 18-44 range.
The divergence in satisfaction ratings may be linked to availability of content, however. The O2 trial included access to several channels, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five, Sky, MTV and several others. The BT trial, on the other hand, delivered up a mere three channels a week, rotating through a selection of mostly news programming.
“The strong channel line-up has proven to be a key factor in the high satisfaction levels,” Williams said.
Neither operator has ventured into pornographic trials, though both provide adult broadcasting via standard channels. Analysts in the U.K. have long-proclaimed that the big sellers on 3G phone broadcasting platforms would be “football, comedy shows and adult content,” according to the latest analysts round-up conducted by the BBC late last year.
