Consumers are looking for mobile TV, social TV, connected
home and personal cloud services. Individually, each of these categories offers
service providers significant opportunities to expand value-added services,
improve customer loyalty and tap into new revenue streams.
More than a third (37 percent) of global respondents
claim to watch TV services outside the home on a smartphone, tablet, PC or
laptop, according to Motorola Mobility’s 2011 Media Engagement Barometer, an
independent global study of video consumption habits among 9,000 consumers in
16 markets.
The 2011 research discovered a nearly five-fold increase
from 2010 in U.S. TV viewing taking place on smartphones — 23 percent are
currently watching mobile TV on their smartphones.
Comparatively, 46 percent of Japanese respondents report
they have watched mobile TV on their smartphones in 2011.
Germany (22 percent), UAE (20 percent), and Mexico and
Singapore (both 19 percent) are also big mobile TV fans, while Argentina had
only 7 percent of consumers watching mobile TV less than once a week.
More than a quarter (27 percent) of the global consumers
aged between 25-34 years watch mobile TV on a mobile device once or twice a
week, as do just over a third (34 percent) of consumers in the 45-54 age group
and (33 percent) of respondents in the 55+ age group.
“Consumers are constantly connected — and they want
ubiquitous access to their content and communities,” said John Burke,
senior vice president and general manager, Converged Experiences, Motorola
Mobility.
“They don’t care about the technology to make all of
this happen; they simply want it to work and expect it to fit into their daily
routines. The convergence trend upon us is a tremendous opportunity for our
customers to capitalize on delivering this simple, intuitive experience in the
home,” Burke added.
Consumers’ desire for constant connection is influencing
TV and video consumption, which accounts for an average of 15 hours per week
worldwide. Germans now watch an average of 18 hours a week of TV and video
compared to 14 hours (TV and video) in 2010. U.S. respondents now watch 21
hours of TV per week — two hours more than in 2010.
On-demand TV courtesy of the consumer’s DVR is shifting
how and when consumers watch their favorite programs. This year, three times as
many U.S. consumers are watching on-demand TV. The UK had a similar increase
with 15 percent of consumers watching on-demand TV in 2011 compared to 8
percent in 2010.
Service providers may seek to leverage this trend by
offering improved real-time experiences at the original airing of the show.
Deeper engagement with the programming via an integrated social TV element can
provide viewers an incentivized reason to watch the initial program airing and
engage with other fans immediately.
A preference for accessing a social TV service using a
PC, smartphone or tablet (43 percent) instead of the television set using an
on-screen menu (40 percent).
Using social networks to comment on the program is the
preferred social TV service for 89 percent of respondents in Germany, 87
percent in the U.S. and 60 percent in South Korea.
Respondents in Russia (55 percent) and the U.S. (34
percent) said they would prefer a social TV service that links through to sites
to buy products featured on the program, while only 23 percent of respondents
in Germany preferred this type of service.
People worldwide preferred a service that allows them to
video chat with family and friends; support for this feature was especially
high in China at 58 percent of respondents interested this type of service,
compared to 37 percent of U.S. respondents and only 19 percent in the UK.
By Telecomlead.com Team
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