Analyst company Screen Digest claims there are more than 15 million mobile TV subscribers in Asia but the revenues from the industry are “miserable”, reports RapidTV News. Apparently Japan has 6.5 million users of free mobile TV, which is a far more believable figure than the 30+ million reported by Berg, which seemed to be based on handset availability rather than usage patterns. Screen Digest goes on to say that Sth Korea’s free T-DMB service has 4 million registered users and its pay S-DMB service has about 2.4 million subscribers, which is a boost on the 1.11 million it had at the beginning of this year. Disturbingly, Screen Digest claims that “South Korea’s broadcasters have seen revenues of just $24,000 last year”, although you could expect that to increase significantly this year.

In the UK consultants Mott MacDonald Schema commissioned research into mobile TV, which found that “nearly two thirds of mobile phone users who have never tried to access mobile TV say it’s because they have no interest” reports NetImperative. Of those who have tried to access mobile TV 19 percent found it too expensive and 13 percent say the screen is too small. However, the consultants think mobile TV can be successful: “So far mobile operators and broadcasters have just been testing the water offering limited content with little or no marketing push. This combined with significant handset constraints, for the majority of users, often results in an unsatisfying user experience.”