MobiTV is reporting that it just surpassed 5 million subscribers and it took just less than four months for the company to bring the last million on board. Growth slowed somewhat when the company sought to climb from three to four million subscribers earlier this year, but the most recent million additions came in the quickest fashion yet. We caught up with Paul Scanlan, president and co-founder of the Emeryville, CA-based firm, yesterday to try to make sense of it all. The country is in the pits of a recession after all. Who’s got money for mobile TV these days that couldn’t justify the cost four months ago?

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Scanlan: “Our business ebbs and flows so I don’t want to overstate the acceleration that we have seen.” If he could point to one reason for the latest surge it would be the rise of smartphones and users’ growing interest in data services. Carriers are also supporting MobiTV with more marketing and deck placement , 3G networks continue to saturate and the breadth of content available on the platform has grown substantially. Scanlan declined to say where the majority of the new subscribers came from, but hinted that Sprint (NYSE: S), which continues to be its No. 1 customer, is making strong contributions with its NFL programming. But it remains to be seen if the growth or these current subscriber numbers hold: for $9 (for radio) and $10 (for TV) a month, it is pricey in these recessionary times, and probably the first thing to go off the list if a subscriber is looking to cut costs. Also, can MobiTV continue to exist as an independent company without raising more money, or being acquired? Again, remains to be seen…