Streamed mobile TV users set to soar

This week, Juniper Research released a survey highlighting the increasing popularity of streaming TV services directly to smartphone devices. Juniper predicts that the number of users will rise to 240m by 2014. The report found that this dramatic growth would arise from a combination of both increased smartphone penetration and, critically, an increase in the usage of live and on-demand Internet TV and IPTV services.

Of course, TV content is no longer confined to a TV screen in the home, and mobile TV adds another exciting dimension to consumers’ viewing experience. Mobile TV allows viewers to access real-time content whenever and wherever they want, meaning consumers can watch events, such as sports or breaking news stories, as they happen, and interact with that content as they watch. As the likes of Sky invest more in mobile access, the TV industry will be encouraged to see the rising mobile TV usage figures. 

Content providers would however, be wise to ensure that in offering consumers a multiscreen experience, each of the devices used are able to interact with each other. At present, devices are all too often treated independently, with mobile devices receiving cut-down services via the cloud. Content providers and device manufacturers need to work together to enable companion devices to ‘connect’ to TVs and STB’s to achieve a fully converged user experience.