About once a week a traditional media company announces that its programming will be available in planes, trains, and automobiles. The latest launch is NBC’s (GE) new on-demand shows which will be available through MobiTV, one of the players in the phone video delivery market. Verizon (VZ) is starting a similar business with Qualcomm (QCOM), and so is everyone else.
Within a year, it is safe to assume that most major wireless companies here, in Europe, and in Asia will offer TV. Some will be live and some on-demand.
But, several surveys have shown that the up-take of these services will be about 10%. For example, The Yankee Group found that only 11% of Europeans were interested in getting video on their phones. Once people were asked to pay a premium, the number dropped further.
So, the market will probably end up being fairly small with dozens of services vying for a few consumers.
NBC, are you watching this?
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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