Feature: Sport on mobile TV versus big screen TV - October 2006  

TV Sports Markets and Sport Business assess take-up of mobile television services during the 2006 FIFA World Cup for S&T. Did the reality actually live up to the hype?

On the eve of the FIFA World Cup 2006, Informa Telecoms & Media Mobile forecast that users accessing World Cup action via streaming and broadcast services would generate $300m (£163m) of revenue. The study, ‘Mobile TV: Broadcast and Mobile Multimedia’ said the FIFA World Cup would provide the spark for the launch of a number of broadcast services in Europe and pave the way for real growth over the next five years. David McQueen, senior analyst was quoted as saying: “As soon as the 2008 Olympics, we'll all be much more prepared to watch TV on our phones, and by the 2010 [FIFA] World Cup the infrastructure will be mature and one in thirteen mobile phone users worldwide will own a mobile TV handset.”

But now that memories of triumphs and disaster on the pitch are beginning to fade, what were the results on the small screen? Perhaps the best clue that results were not going to be quite as the analysts had predicted came from the mobile phone operators themselves. Even before the first ball was kicked, the industry was downplaying expectations with voices of experience pointing out that broadcast mobile TV was barely out of the pilot stages in most major markets. 3G coverage is patchy, viewing quality poor and services priced at a premium so uptake of streamed services during the FIFA World Cup was always going to be limited.

Now, in the cold light of day, we can examine the reality of take-up, revenues and of users’ experiences with mobile data during the competition.
Perhaps predictably, FIFA World Cup soccer mobile content was most popular in Italy, the nation that produced the tournament’s winning team. According to figures from Telephia, 6% of Italian mobile subscribers accessed World Cup content on their mobile devices, compared with 3% for French mobile subscribers. Not surprisingly, European 3G mobile subscribers posted higher rates for accessing World Cup soccer content on their phones at 14%, whilst only 3% of non-3G mobile users accessed soccer content.
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