April 17 Morning Sessions
*Welcome and Introduction*
Michael Stroud - iHollywood Forum
Stroud - Sprint and Treo 700p is a very capable mobile video platform.
However purchasing video is not compelling because the same content can
be seen for free on TV.
Stroud - This year the main hurdle for mobile video will be to drive
higher adoption rates. The technology is here and is now becoming a
standard in handsets. The remaining question is how does the industry
get consumers to pay for mobile video content.
*Obsticles and Oportunities*
Scott Wills - Hiwire
Robin Chan - VCast
Joe Zaller - Snell and Wilcox
Jeffery Brown - MediaFLO
Bob Zitter - HBO
Michael Stroud - iHollywood Forum
Chan - Mobile video is still at an early adopter stage. But phone prices
are coming down and as a result the subscriber rates are going up.
Chan - Adding a "TV button" to handsets is leading to more adoption. The
user only needs to push 2 buttons to access content. First they push the
"TV button" which activates the TV functions on the device then the user
selects a channel.
Zaller - 3G is a unicast technology versus MediaFLO which is a broadcast
technology. There will likely need to be a hybrid inorder for mobile
video to succed. Both methods are monitizable but MediaFLO's broadcast
technology is much more economically efficient.
Chan - V CAST is live in 22 markets now.
Zaller - Mobile video is inclusive of all kinds of devices not just
phones. It includes iPods, TVs, phones, etc.
Brown - The unicast delivery networks have already begun to colapse in
some foriegn markets. This problem has driven the broadcast build out.
Curently there are 3 million broadcast capable handsets in Korea and
there are 5 million in Japan. Early adoption is only at issue in the US
and this will soon be overcome.
Zitter - 70% of viewers watch time shifted (VOD, DVR, etc.) programing
instead of live if they have access to that technology. Consumers seem
to perfer on demand methods rather than DVR so they do not have to plan
ahead. This propensity for time shifting seems to cut against the
broadcast model. Consumers want to control their experience. The only
exception to this seems to be live sports.
Wills - Storage on mobile devices will grow enabeling greater DVR
functionality. This coupled with the broadcast model will empower the
consumer while distributing the work load to the end user rather than
the network.
Zitter - The use of these technology skews to younger users.
Zitter - Consumers expect day and date deployment on mobile platforms of
TV product.
Chan - The content owners are slicing rights to maximize revenue.
Wills - The practice of slicing rights by venue is making it too complex
for consumers as well as distributors and will slow adoption.
Zitter - Sometimes visual content needs to be reworked to release across
all platforms. For example if music is included in a program, and if
that music could not be licenced for broadband, the music will need to
be redone before that visual content can be released across all
markets.
Stroud - Consumers don't care how a program is delivered to them. They
just want to watch the content when and where they choose.
Zaller - There will be a continued rapid proliferation of these new
technologies because the average handset lifespan is only 9-18 months.
Pannel - High adoption of these mobile video technologies in the US will
occur within the next 2-5 years.
Wills - Consumers don't neccessarilly want content specifically created
for mobile.
Zitter - There are different concerns for creating content for mobile.
Dark sceens, long shots, and audio with high dynamic ranges do not
translate well. Quick cuts, and medium shots do work well. Also there is
a high cost to creating content now because there is no standardization
in resolutions, metadata, or aspect ratios for devices.
Wills - Consumers are now willing to watch for about 5-10 minutes. If
they like the content they will stay longer and these periods are
increasing.
Stroud - Consumers will watch increasingly long content as devices begin
to provide better experiences (i.e. iPhone).
New Terms -
- MDTV - Mobile Digital TV Alliance. (See http://www.mdtvalliance.org/)
*Keynote: QUALCOMM*
Paul Jacobs - QUALCOMM
Jacobs - The phone is not just a phone anymore. It will be an extention
of the person, containing a wide variety of personal information, and
having access to even more. Making calls is becoming an afterthought.
Jacobs - Mobile phones are more ubiquitous than all other consumer
electronics devices.
Jacobs - The higher-end data services are more popular in lower economic
strata.
Jacobs - 1/3 of the worlds population have cell phones.
Jacobs - A voice call requires about 4k and video requiers about 400k.
Because there is a per bit cost associated with delivery the economics
of video will need to become more efficient.
Jacobs - Viewing is not based on a "prime-time" model, because the
devices are always with the consumer, viewing is more evenly distributed
throughout the day.
Jacobs - MediaFLO can support local content, including local ad
insertion.
Jacobs - MediaFLO is becoming a standard. The FLOForum includes 70+
members in 12 countries. Non-phone devices are already being built (i.e.
PacketVideo).
New Terms -
- Open Mobile Video Coalition - It is an industry alliance including the
9 largest US broadcasters who intend to help accelerate the adoption of
mobile broadcast video.
- Clipcasting - Clipcasting pushes content to the device in the
background that can later be accessed on demand by the user.
*Presentation: Chalenges To Mobile Video Delivery*
Joe Zaller - Snell and Wilcox
Zaller - The 4 main problems for mobile content delivery are: 1) all
screens on mobile devices are progressive but most content is
interlaced, 2) the screen sizes and shapes differ from device to device,
3) the compression needs to get better, and 4) the diversity of
platforms makes the delivery of the content inefficient.
Zaller - As the number of deliverables goes up, the earnings per
deliverable goes down.
Zaller - There are 2 solutions to the above 1) dynamic automatic
reframing and 2) dynamic automatic refocusing.
*Mobile TV: The Battle Is Joined*
Levi Shapiro - Telephia
Michael Ramke - Modeo
Larry Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment
Sam Matheny - New Over Wireless
Jerry Hanley - QUALCOMM
Osama Al-Shaykh - PacketVideo
Shapiro - There are 6.2 million subscribers of mobile video now in the
US. This makes up 2.7% of the US mobile phone market.
Shapiro - Mobile video now is generating more revenue than mobile
games.
Shapiro - 85% of handsets are not video capable in the US. There are 30
million that are video capable.
Shapiro - About 1 in 5 users in the US who can subscribe to video
services do.
Shapiro - The demographics in the US are skewing heavily toward males.
70% of video service subscribers are male and 3/4 of these are under 35.
All other value ad services tend to skew heavilly toward female.
Shapiro - Hispanics in the US are 3 times more likely to subscribe to
video services.
Shapiro - Almost 1/2 of subscribers in the US are in homes with 4 or
more people. The choice for the viewer may be between small screen and
no screen.
Shapiro - 80% of viewers in the US watch more than 5 minutes per session
and the period is getting longer.
Shapiro - 100% of video subscribers in the US use their mobile device to
access the Internet. 2/3s of these users also upload video to the
Internet.
Shapiro - Entertainment is the most highly sought after content form but
it is also the least available.
Al-Shaykh - HSDPA (3G) is working in France and Japan.
*Presentation: User Generated Content*
Larry Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment
Gitlin - Comedy is leading in the space but other areas such as drama
and how-tos are growing.
Gitlin - Handheld Entertainment through its ZVUE network delivers both
user and profesionally generated content side by side.
-- compsed on my hiptop --
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