EETimes reports on the views and stats exchanged at the DVB World conference today in Dublin. Italian mobile operator 3 Italia (3 in Italy) reported more than 250,000 subscribers (about 3.7 percent of its subscriber base of 6.8 million) have signed up for its mobile TV package of nine mobile channels, paying 29 euros per month (assuming they’re all paying the monthly subscription, rather than the shorter-term ones).
Even though the total is a small percentage of the operator’s 6.8 million users, Alessandro Floris, 3 Italia’s director of digital mobile TV, said it shows “there is a market out there for people to watch [mobile] TV, and they’re willing to pay to watch TV.” A boost to use has also been the recent introduction of three premium channels - two softcore adult offerings and one Big Brother reality show (Grande Fratello).
The strategy is to focus on popular content and cut costs where possible by producing some channels (such as La3Sport, a soccer channel) in-house. “We are not going to do production like the other broadcasters,” Floris said. He reported mobile TV viewers generate 60 percent more than non-users. “Churn is negligible,” he said.