PricewaterhouseCoopers has released some projections that show viewing as well as advertising on mobile TV platforms will continue to ramp up.
Viewers of mobile TV in the U.S. will expand to 52.5 million in 2015 from 17.6 million in 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts, while mobile TV budgets and ad spending will grow to $1.4 billion in 2015 from $370 million last year. The company's annual "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook" report shows mobile TV will also actually get a boost from tablets as well. Since so much content on current tablets is offered on a paid basis (TV rentals, magazines, newspapers, movies, etc.), consumers are quickly adopting the method of paying for digital items on portable devices. This is in contrast to the Web where "content should be free." Also, factoring in the convenience element, consumers want their content on demand and want it now, and are more than willing to pay for it. Tablets also set the stage for people also expecting the same for their mobile devices. They want the content accessible immediately and can make a payment easily with one click.
While most consumers are purchasing existing content that is downloaded, the shift will expand more to live options, as mobile TV apps become more prevalent in the U.S., shifting from fetching prerecorded content to jumping on to live streams or network broadcasts. PricewaterhouseCoopers also is projecting that traditional TV advertising revenue in the U.S. will expand to $89.8 billion by 2015 up from $70.7 billion last year. Meanwhile, online TV, not including mobile, will see ad growth up to $4.1 billion in 2015 from $1.6 billion in 2010.
Another element worth considering is how many advertising options are now opening to mobile TV, all of which serve to accelerate the growth in the next several years. Obviously traditional commercials are a part of it, as well as prerolls and post rolls, but also since delivery methods and apps are becoming more sophisticated, more elements can be intertwined with live content. There can be banners and ads surrounding the interface as well as screen overlays. In addition, with the advent of embedded product placement, where the items are promoted either by the hosts themselves or via live on-screen graphics and animations, there are multiple ways that advertising dollars can be spent with mobile TV. As the report suggests, the advertising options and revenue generated for the mobile TV space are only going to head upwards.
