{"id":551145,"date":"2006-12-19T12:45:53","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T12:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551145-closer-than-you-think.html"},"modified":"2006-12-19T12:45:53","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T12:45:53","slug":"closer-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551145-closer-than-you-think.html","title":{"rendered":"Closer than you think"},"content":{"rendered":"

If M-Mobile, a subsidiary of Pay-TV purveyor MultiChoice has its way, scheduled live mobile TV broadcasting – otherwise known as digital video broadcasting (DVB-H) – is close to becoming a reality in South Africa.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Though M-Mobile CE Linda Vermaas declined to comment on specifics, Naspers (M-Mobile’s parent company) in a recent report released by Merrill Lynch is said to have invested close to R450m towards developing its mobile TV and broadband services. With TV now set to enter a new era, Naspers has since offered to buy rival media group Johncom’s 38,56% stake in MultiChoice in a move to consolidate its holding in the Pay-TV operator.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

But despite the cash so far pumped into M-Mobile, concerns about mobile TV’s viability in the SA market are ringing loud. "It’s a service that will appeal mainly to a niche as opposed to the mass market," says Arthur Goldstuck, executive director at research house World Wide Worx.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The high cost for DVB-H enabled handsets is also likely to hamper uptake. However, a new generation of young technology savvy individuals – aptly referred to as the iPod generation – could nevertheless provide some encouragement to M-Mobile TV’s prospects.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Says telecoms analyst Richard Hurst: "I’m sure that they won’t be targeting the old TV consumer – the guy who sits in front of a TV set passively absorbing whatever’s on the box. M-Mobile’s target market is likely to be the trendier and younger communications-focused audience. It’s a risky venture, but whichever way one looks at it, M-Mobile has simply taken a bold step to meet demand ahead of the future."<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Since launching test transmissions of its DVB-H service 12 months ago, Vermaas says consumer response to the concept of high quality TV on cellphones has been encouraging. "It mirrors a substantial body of international research that’s yielded very encouraging consumer buy-in."<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

But she’s dismissive of concerns that handset pricing could hamper adoption. "Initially, DVB-H handset prices are likely to be high. However, such prices typically often come down quickly and that would trigger mobile broadcast TV to reach a broad spread of consumers rather than merely a niche market."<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

MTN, which is participating in the DVB-H trials, has been encouraged by consumer response to the service. Ashraff Paruk, MTN GM of business strategy, says the response from current subscribers – plus formal research conducted by MultiChoice – indicated that there’s scope for mobile TV in the SA market.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

"The only concerns raised by consumers so far have been with regard to uncertainty concerning pricing of a future potential commercial service," says Paruk.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Peter Matlare, Vodacom executive director in charge of commercial services, says potential subscribers have warmed to DVB-H trials that the company has been conducting on behalf of MultiChoice. Vodacom also offers a mobile TV service, with 22 channels on its Vodafone live portal. However, its service differs from DVB-H in that it’s merely a 3G-streamed technology while DVB-H is a true broadcast technology.<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

FINWEEK<\/em>
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IMAGINE WATCHING your favourite movie or news programme on your cellphone from the comfort of your office desk or on a bus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}