Mobile Video in Russia

Mobile Video is one of the main nowadays trends in Mobile Communications. Video is one of the most important growth drivers for broadband networks. That's why almost all operators are trying to launch content projects - to generate demand for the traffic and attract subscriber to entertainment on MNO portal.

Mobile Video projects are launched almost in all big MNOs worldwide. It is one of the most entertaining parts of the mobile portal.

Mobile TV offering from Marketing point of view

Typical mobile video services are:

Mobile Video channels - standard live video channels. Often they are packaged in basic pack and premium pack. Standard rule is to have simple sport, news, kids, music and entertainment channels in basic package. Special upgrade to premium package could give more channels: more interesting music channels and of course adult.

Another way was chosen by T-Mobile UK where TV packages are formed on content type basis: News&Sports, Entertainment, Music - all of them having same price.

It should be mentioned that live channels should be selected for Mobile TV based on their content - it should be short running and often rotating. There shouldn't be long stories, movies because it is hard to watch 1 hour and a half TV programme on a small screen. Short TV episodes are popular because people are able to spend several free minutes effectively.
In order to maintain profitability MNO could limit maximum viewing time.

The most common way of selling Mobile TV service is to couple it with unlimited broadband package in order to make subscriber confident in his spendings.

Mobile VOD - the best way is having a lot of from 3 minutes till 10 minutes video clips. VOD content for mobiles often has similiar structure: adult, sport, music, UGC. Key to success here is high level of rotation content on portal (weekly or even daily) in order to attract subscribers to visit it as often as possible. Another thing is that portal shouldn't contain many items in every category because it becomes hard to navigate them. Price is often made per click or as packages for unlimited access (may be with some limitations - no more than 50 items per month). To sum up: the key to success is to keep it simple.

UGC virtual channels - it becomes popular to create UGC channels. UGC content published on operators portal could be collected into one live channel and presented to subscribers.

I'd like to point out requirement to deploy business analytics as initial part of Mobile TV in order to be able to develop marketing strategy for the content because content is the key success factor for Mobile TV offering.

Freemium - it is a set of content VOD and maybe even live channels available for free. It is used to get subscribers aware of service and its value.

World experience

Many world analytics and agenices forecast bright future for the service. According to In-Stat research:

Mobile TV subscribers are forecast to reach 42 mln in 2012.

In 2007 there were 6 million Mobile TV subscribers.

$5 billion revenue from Mobile TV in 2012.

So, I believe it worth deploying such a service in MNO network.

According to Ericsson typical usage of Mobile TV is 3-35 minutes per day and 30-40% of sessions last less than 5 minutes.

Several links on European deployments:

T-Mobile UK

Three UK

Situation in Russia

Megafon launched its Mobile TV in 2004 first among all MNOs. Currently its Mobile TV subscribers base is estimated at 100k with price at 240 rubles. Service based on wap portal (without branded player) and lacks of Dynamic Bitrate Adaptation. Absence of DBRA causes continuous bufferings in EDGE networks. As it was mentioned before penetration of Mobile TV is really small.

Yota is a mobile WiMax operator. They are offering mobile TV package for free (included in basic Internet subscription). But there is small amount of interesting channels. Wey aiMax technology gives better performance for their TV streams and hence better quality.

Beeline DVB-H based TV. Demonstrated to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during exhibition service. I don't believe in its development because of high costs of building new radio infrastructure.

MTS launched Omlet project which has mobile version. As it was mentioned before I think MTS has very good strategy of going to the market through the right content. They have right content, they are building attractive portal, users will be interesting in getting access from mobiles.

BWC EDGE based proposal. Built on Huawei solution.
It could be usefull to propose new partnerships to MNOs in video content area because content is a key to success in mobile TV offering. Could Russian MNO develop Italian success story? Or at least USA success? Will see...

Thanks,

Denis.