Mobile media and entertainment revenue to reach $6.6B in 2012: Report

By Mickey Alam Khan

April 23, 2008

Double the fun

A new report claims that U.S. mobile media and entertainment services will generate $6.6 billion in revenue in 2012, up from $3.1 billion in 2007.

That compound annual growth rate of 16.3 percent will not pick up steam until after 2010, when the technical and market ecosystem for mobile media and entertainment improves, according to telecoms and media consultancy Analysys Research.

Mobile media and entertainment services are expected to account for 12.3 percent of non-voice revenue nationwide in 2012.

Mobile television and video on-demand services will also experience furious growth in the next five years. Analysys projects that broadcast and unicast TV and video services will account for 36 percent of mobile media and entertainment revenue by 2012.

In comparison, revenue from personalization services will drop from 47 percent of total mobile media and marketing revenue in 2007 to 17 percent in 2012, Analysys said in its Mobile Media and Entertainment in the U.S.: forecasts 2007-2012 report.

The consultancy sees several trends.

First is an improvement to service accessibility. Mobile Web platforms will improve and offer access to off-deck content. Presentation of off-deck content will become more streamlined and friendly to the mobile reader.

Second, there will be wider availability of content courtesy of higher-generation network and device penetration. Technology such as 3G and 3.5G as well as increased coverage by Qualcomm’s MediaFlo will make services available to more consumers and also lead to the development of the off-deck content market.

Third, Analysys expects improvements to service usability, which providers have not focused on so far.

The final trend that is driving market growth is a simplified and more attractive pricing of mobile media and entertainment content and applications along with mobile data access.