Make sure you carry your TV licence!

The BBC are reporting the introduction of the BT Movio service which provides TV to mobile phones - BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Major TV broadcasters go mobile . In contrast to the other TV services to phones this will use the DAB digital network rather than the 3G system. This move will certainly please the notional mobile moocher (described by the BBC) that wants to watch ITV's Corrie down the boozer. It will also have significant impact on the structure and profits of the industry. 3G was supposed to 'save' the Mobile Network Operators. However, in a prescient resource article written last year ( Virgin, BT Movio, and the Case for Mobile TV without the MNO) Pyramid Research argued that they might become "casualties of a dis-intermediation process that would minimize their role in the Mobile TV value chain or remove them altogether." Pyramind Research argue that they have already missed out on the riches to be gleaned from the music download gold rush.

It seems that almost everyone's head is being bashed together by the processes of convergence. In fact, rather than any kind of nirvana, the great coming-together it is proving to be a tortuous train wreck that is twisting all sorts of institutions -new and old - into some strange and contorted shapes. Who would have thought that one would need a TV licence to carry a mobile phone in the UK? Who would have thought back then during the great feeding frenzy for 3G licences that the profits of the mobile phone industry would be challenged by DAB radio?

Blogged with Flock