Who in their right mind would want to watch video content on a two inch by two inch screen? According to the Los Angeles Times and their article, No Big Demand For Small Screen by Matea Gold, not even teenagers (who are, typically, the early adopters of these new technologies) are into Mobile TV.
Although the article describes lack of quality programming and herky jerky buffering issues (were they reading my Blog from last week? – see Buffering – Stop The Chop) as the main barriers to entry, I think it’s something completely different.
We’re all getting in sync with the notion of The Third Screen (screen one = TV, screen two = computer and screen three = mobile phones). I read a quote from an article in Advertising Age from May 2006: “The idea of ‘new media’ is old. Teens don’t see cellphones as a ‘third screen.’ It’s their second screen, after the computer.”
What does all of this mean?
I think Mobile TV rocks. I see tons of applications, and the same people who are dismissing it now are probably the same people who thought the notion of Podcasting was insane (who, in their right mind would want to listen to talk or homegrown radio shows on an iPod?).
I travel enough to see how Mobile TV will change the way we watch anything… and that’s the big learning. Young people don’t watch TV anymore. They don’t sit idly by waiting for someone to push content their way. They’re creating the content and sharing it. If they don’t watch MTV at home, why would they watch it on their mobile devices?
Mobile TV needs to figure out who their real audience is and who would want to be engaged in passive content reception while on the go. Until that day comes, we’ll all be reading articles like No Big Demand For Small Screen, even though, deep down inside, we all know that Mobile TV will become as ubiquitous as an annoying ringtone.