Newspapers, TV, Radio, Internet and Mobile Phone TV

Newspaper, Radio, TV and Internet- these are what we understand as media. They inform us, educate us and of course, entertain us. Mobile phone does not exactly fall to this category. We use mobile phone for communicating with each other. However, mobile phone television is gradually emerging as a serious contender to the rest of the four.

I know that in rich countries, often individuals have their own television sets in their own rooms. Well, this is not the case in the third world. Here, most families have just one television set and one radio set (very few families own more than one television and radio). However, with the increase in teledensity, it is common now even in many Asian countries that many families own more than one mobile phone sets. So, the potential market for mobile phone television is not smaller than the traditional television set.

The rise of mobile phone television is going to come not from US or Europe but from China. China Daily reported:

As the latest fashionable media, mobile phone TV has development potential because of its portability and its lack of age limitations even children carry phones now.

China has more than 430 million mobile phone users, and conference participants regard the country as one of the world’s most promising markets for mobile TV and other value-added wireless services.

With the standard for broadcasting signals to mobile phones, which was developed in China, taking effect yesterday, the mobile TV industry took another step forward.

But even with the standard in place, “without the full support of mobile operators and production companies, public acceptance of mobile TV will be slow,” warned Chen Tongxing, vice-president of Mobile Multimedia Co Ltd.

The continuous high economic growth in China is increasing the purchasing power of millions of people every year. So, mobile phone television has huge potential here. I guess that after China, mobile phone television will become a big market in India. Indians are crazy for television and movies. In fact, most people in Asia love television. Busy urban life means that many people will be eager to enjoy television in their mobile phones.