Users turned off by mobile TV

Mobile TV is not proving as popular as was hoped

Newly published research shows little interest among consumers for watching television on their mobile phones.

Fewer than one in five of the 1,500 UK consumers questioned in a recent poll said that they wanted to watch TV on their mobile phone, and 70 per cent said that they actively did not want to use their mobile for viewing such content.

Of those that were keen, over half wanted to watch music videos and 40 per cent wanted news and sport.

Consumers are much more enthusiastic about watching TV programmes on their PCs, with 44 per cent indicating an interest.

"Consumers are clearly excited at the prospect of entertainment on new devices," said John Enser, media partner at legal firm Olswang, which commissioned the research.

"But what consumers want varies dramatically from home computers to mobiles, so new innovative services have been forced to cover many bases.

"There can be no 'one size fits all' approach to offering entertainment to users across many different platforms, and this increases the investments demanded of companies moving into these new areas."

The research showed strong demand for digital downloads, and over half of those questioned wanted to watch programmes whenever it suited them.

Fifteen per cent of those questioned were already watching downloaded films, suggesting high levels of piracy since legitimate film downloads are still in their infancy.

But the downloaders are willing to pay once services become available, according to the poll.

Some 43 per cent said they would be happy to subscribe to a service that allowed them to download films and music. The most popular pricing systems included pay-to-view and pay-to-keep.

The research will be grim reading for Nokia, which has just launched its first handset designed for mobile television, and the media companies backing the technology.