Mobile TV has at times been considered the major breakthrough for mobile telephony over the past few years, but it has failed to take off. There are countless examples of network providers and manufacturers trying to open up the idea to the masses and to date every single one has failed.
Virgin Mobile sold a TV phone (aptly named the Lobster) a couple of years ago that was so appallingly bad that everyone I knew who got within 3 feet of one laughed. Besides the awful design, the reception quality was akin to watching a TV from the 1940’s, and one with a bad signal at that.
Vodafone dabbled in subscription based mobile TV, as have other network providers, but it was not widespread enough to take off. With limited channels and dodgy picture quality under 3G this solution never will capture the imagination of the general public.
TVCatchup is an excellent free service that brings good quality TV to select mobile users and is by far the best example of this technology working that I have seen to date. Ideally Wi-Fi is needed, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it works well and provides a good user experience. My son often watches it on his iPod Touch in bed when we want some peace and quiet and in that situation it has a place.
However, there is a fundamental problem with mobile TV that means it will never take off. Mobile TV is to be used when you are out and about. But, when you are out and about you are doing something else. At no point in my life have I sat in a coffee shop or anywhere else and thought that I would like to watch live TV. Catching up on TV I have missed via iPlayer is a bonus, but is something I do when I am in the house or in a hotel; places that have TVs in them.
Watching TV is an activity best done when sat on a sofa, when you want to get away from the real world and the technology that can dominate it. I don’t want a TV programme to be interrupted by emails, text messages and various other notifications. I want to sit down with a coffee and enjoy what I am watching. For this reason I struggle to see where mobile TV will fit into our lives in the future. I will never say never, but I still can’t see it becoming commonplace.
I’ve found situations when I’ve been out and about and I wanted to keep up with live TV – important footie matches, Formula 1 races, when I’ve had to be somewhere else e.g. on a train, or en route to another event. Where there’s something which has a result (sports, reality tv shows) and it’s hard to avoid having them spoiled before you can watch them, mobile tv allows you to keep up when you can’t sit down and watch a TV. I once watched the second half of a world cup match in an airport departure lounge. It’s a fairly niche think but for keen fans of something, mobile tv could have a use there.
The other possibility I can think of is on camping holidays where taking a full size TV isn’t practical, but watching TV Catchup on an iPhone or iPad when you’ve retired to your tent for the night might be a nice thing to do. I tend to read a book in that situation, but some people like to watch tv before they sleep.
I agree with Alison that there are specific contexts in which some live TV could be helpful. I remember missing the Super Bowl to take my drive my wife across a couple states for a work engagement. I would have loved if she could have taken the wheel for a while so I could get in some football. Most of my “subway” journey is actually on elevated tracks, too, so that’s about 80 minutes of every day I could watch some TV – but I wouldn’t just turn it on for the sake of having it on – it would only be for a football game or something. (Realize that I’m referring to American football – the one where men don’t make a show of pretending to shatter like china dolls at the slightest touch.)
I wrote about American Football once:) http://outspoken.typepad.com/outspoken/2004/04/american_footba.html