ASIA : CCID Consulting has released its article on mobile TV development solving four key difficulties. The 2008 Olympic Games is approaching and the era of 3G is just around the corner. Mobile TV is absorbing more and more attention and many research institutions think very highly of it. Yet mobile TV is still in its infancy in China. CCID Consulting thinks that here are four speed bumps on the way to a steady stage of growth: national standards, lack of a solid profit model, low-quality user experience and terminal bottlenecks.

The first step in the process will be for national standards to unify. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) unilaterally promulgated the industrial standards for mobile multimedia broadcasting in the end of October 2006, yet carriers have not been influenced by the standards. Four technical standards, i.e. CDMB from China Association for Standardization, TMMB from NuFront, DMB-TH from Tsinghua University and CMMB from SARFT are competing to become the national standard. The earlier confirmation of the national standard for mobile TV will facilitate defining the position of domestic mobile TV participants in the industrial chain and terminating the unfavorable situation that manufacturers of chips and terminals are at a loss in selecting which standards to choose.

Currently the industry lacks a reasonable and long-lasting profit model. Carriers have all but established a cooperative operation pattern with value- added service providers that relies on existing channels of charging. In this model, users pay information fees and high data flow fees. Monthly flow set is provided, but the charge is still higher for ordinary users. Meanwhile, the data flow of mobile TV will occupy larger communication bandwidth, which will certainly influence the general communication of carriers. It is an era of media. Mobile TV has no advantage in advertising value in comparison with traditional media. Before forming a large user base, it is hard for advertising revenue to support the operation of mobile TV by itself. User experience needs to improve. Currently, content from mobile TV and traditional TV is homogenized. Terminal displays are small with low resolution. Carriers' and broadcasting departments' insertion of advertisements to balance income lower user enjoyment to some extent.

The bottleneck from terminals stifles popularity. Although there is an escalation of terminals for mobile TV, the terminal price is still very high. The average price of a new mobile phone is above 3,000 Yuan. In addition, the majority of the current terminals adopt Li-ion batteries with a capacity for approximately two hours business of mobile TV, which means that mobile TV use will influence the user's normal calling habits. Based on the above-mentioned reasons, CCID Consulting thinks that mobile TV must receive improvements in the aspects of national standards, profit model, user experience and terminal support to facilitate its sustainable development.

About CCID Consulting CCID Consulting Co., Ltd (hereinafter known as CCID Consulting), the first Chinese consulting firm listed in the Growth Enterprise Market of the Stock Exchange (GEM) of Hong Kong (stock code: HK08235), is directly affiliate to China Center for Information Industry Development (hereinafter known as CCID Group). Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has so far set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Harbin, with over 300 professional consultants and industry experts.