Forecast: Mobile media revs to double by 2012

Mobile media and entertainment revenues will more than double over the next five years according to global telecoms and digital media advisers Analysys Research. While U.S. MME services (excluding messaging, and mobile browsing and data charges) yielded $3.1 billion in revenue in 2007, Analysys forecasts the market will grow to $6.6 billion by 2012, a compound annual growth rate of 16.3 percent. According to Analysys, mobile entertainment won't fully hit its stride until after 2010, when the firm expects the technical and market environment will improve. In all, Analysys anticipates MME services will account for 12.3 percent of non-voice revenue by 2012, with mobile TV and video-on-demand enjoying the most significant consumer uptake--while combined broadcast and unicast TV and video services will yield 36 percent of total MME revenue by 2012, personalization services will decline from 47 percent of total MME revenue in 2007 to 17 percent in 2012.

The Analysys forecast cites market drivers including:

• Improvements to service accessibility--mobile web browsing platforms will improve and facilitate off-deck content acquisition, while off-deck presentation will become more user-friendly.
• Wider content availability galvanized by next-gen network and device penetration: "As 3G, 3.5G and Qualcomm's MediaFLO network coverage increases, a greater range of services will become available to a wider audience, and off-deck content markets (both operator-billed and non-operator-billed) will develop," said report co-author Katrina Bond in a prepared statement. "Non-operator-billed revenue from MME content and services will increase significantly during 2007-2012, and will account for $1.3 billion, or nearly 20 percent, of MME revenue by 2012."
• Improvements to the end-user experience.
• Simplified and more attractive pricing of MME content and applications, as well as mobile data access.

"Operators, content providers and device manufacturers will have to work together to increase subscriber awareness of MME offerings and to ensure straightforward pricing, and simpler purchase and delivery processes," said report co-author Alexandra Rehak in a prepared statement. "It is also critical that the user experience of MME services be compelling and complementary to the subscriber's experience of entertainment across other media."

For more on the Analysys Research forecast:
- read this release

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