• by Wayne Friedman , March 4, 2009

Although operating in a weak economy, the mobile TV industry expects to rapidly grow this year and for the next five years--in large part due to more free, ad-supported content.

Cambridge, Mass.-based telecommunications researcher Northern Sky Research projects there will be more than 32 million TV-enabled phones in the hands of consumers by 2013. According to a Nielsen mobile survey in the third quarter, there are 10.3 million U.S. phone subscribers who subscribe to mobile video. This is up 14% over the second-quarter 2008.

This trend will be helped by TV stations moving into mobile.

Earlier this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, top TV station groups, representing 35% of U.S. TV households--63 stations in 22 markets--announced their commitment for a full-scale mobile launch of TV stations local content-to-mobile devices under the Open Mobile Video Coalition. The group agreed to a new ATSC technological standard for mobile transmission.

The study notes that the delay of traditional TV signals moving to digital from analog in June is affecting the growth of mobile video somewhat--since the freed-up spectrum is seen to benefit mobile video providers.

Currently, much of the mobile video business is a paid service, that comes from extra monthly fees paid by consumers. But NSR says the real growth will come from free, ad-supported services that TV stations' content will provide.

It isn't known to what extent TV stations will work with existing mobile carriers. At present, NSR says AT&T Wireless offers Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile pay service, priced at $15 a month for 10 channels. Quoting an AT&T executive, NSR says free, ad-supported content could work with mobile carriers, especially under a revenue share agreement with the content providers.