Mobile-video sales to jump 17% this year

MOBILE:Revenue will grow to $350 million

By Danny King -- Video Business, 6/18/2009

JUNE 18 | MOBILE: Revenue generated by content programming for so-called "smart" mobile phones will increase 17% this year as companies such as Walt Disney's ESPN and MobiTV make more mobile videos available, according to one report released late last week.

U.S. mobile-video revenue will grow to about $350 million this year, up from $300 million in 2008, and will likely accelerate to a 25% annual growth rate over the next few years as more people buy Apple's iPhones, Palm's Pre and updated versions of Research In Motion's BlackBerry, research firm SNL Kagan said.

Such spending growth would build on recent mobile-video trends, as about 50 million Americans used the Internet through their mobile devices in February, up from about 29 million two years earlier, Nielsen said in a report released last month.

With more people using the Internet from their cell phones, mobile-video viewing has surged, prompting companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications to invest more in mobile applications. The number of people who watched mobile video in the fourth quarter jumped 9% from the third quarter, to about 11 million, Nielsen said in February.

SNL said that such revenue will increase as more people subscribe to mobile-video services. Smart phone subscribers will more than double to 114 million, or about 40% of all mobile-phone customers, in 2010, from 50 million, or 19% in 2008. By the end of 2014, 60% of mobile-phone customers will be smart phone subscribers, according to SNL Kagan.

As for the largest mobile-video programmers, ESPN is followed by closely held MobiTV, Viacom's MTV Mobile and Time Warner's CNN, according to SNL Kagan.