Inevitability, meet mobile TV: FLO Forum boss talks free content
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Mar 16th 2009 at 12:12PM
You can only pimp a pricey, woefully underutilized multimedia network for so long before drawing the conclusion that there's probably something fundamentally wrong with your business model, and indeed, operators around the world have had nothing but trouble attracting subscribers to premium mobile TV services as they've launched over the past few years. The head of the FLO Forum -- the nonprofit group tasked with advocating MediaFLO -- is now acknowledging that mobile TV needs some free, ad-supported content in order to get off the ground (it's just too bad the key players couldn't have figured that out before launching two services in the States), noting that South Korea and Italy have seen some limited success going that route. People like free stuff, but it remains to be seen exactly how Qualcomm and others are going to be able to sell enough advertising space and combine it with enough compelling premium content to get some return on investment; nationwide mobile TV networks don't just build themselves, after all.
Filed under: Multimedia
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve.G @ Mar 16th 2009 3:24PM
Yeah, as it is, the content is pretty dismal. It's not worth the $15/mo Verizon charges for it.
Demodave @ Apr 9th 2009 6:02PM
The only reason I've kept it on my Eternity from AT&T is that it makes a great babysitter for my 4-year old. In the car, in a waiting room, in a restaurant...I turn on Nick for her and she is happy as a clam without getting in to trouble. For that reason alone, it's worth it. But honestly, I've never found a reason to watch it myself.