The results of a new study, ‘Mobile TV – Attitudes to Broadcast on Mobile’, confirms the need for broadcast and entertainment brands to work harder to tailor their content to mobile phones.
The study, which comes from Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast) and audience research agency, iBurbia, suggests that full length programming on mobile is not as popular as made for mobile TV because screen sizes are too small, opportunities to watch full length programmes on-the-go are rare, and subjects preferred to watch full-length programming on the TV.
“There was significant interest in concepts that complemented TV viewing with extra and exclusive content on mobile phones. But the content had to be sufficiently compelling to be worth the effort, and there is a fear of billing abuse, meaning that cost needs to be made clear,” said the man from iBurbia.
Results also suggested that the most successful mobile TV will be marketed with a prompt on the TV screen and targeted to a specific audience. Participants in the study found any content over three minutes too long and anything over one pound too expensive.
Catriona Tate, Business Director for New Creative Content at Red Bee Media, noted “The recent Oxford trials confirmed that there is an appetite for ‘mobile TV’, but this research highlights how ‘TV’ for mobile is wildly different from the ‘TV’ of linear broadcasting. New rules for advertising, navigating and entertaining apply.
“The results point towards the mobile TV market being driven in the short term by advertiser funded content and mobile video that compliments or promotes TV programmes”.