New research from Analysys, a global consulting firm focused on IT, telecoms and media, shows a disconnect between industry views of mobile TV and market forces affecting business.

“In essence, the industry is stuck in the traditional ‘technology driven’ approach, whereas consumers simply want to watch televisual content on the move, without consideration of the underlying technology used to deliver that content,” stated Analysys Senior Consultant Jim Morrish in a press release.

The research highlights the need of consumers to get more out of broadcast mobile TV. Aside from receiving and watching through mobile TV, consumers show interest in download-and-cache of niche and longtail content as well as the time-shifting of content for viewing when and where convenient.

While these are an ideal mobile TV consumption models, it does not necessitate construction of a broadcast mobile TV network.

Analysys report also forecasts intense competition among players mainly attributed to significant number of price-sensitive consumers and high cost of customer relationship. This situation will result to competing supply chains and diverse business models but utilizing data-communication functionalities instead of mobile TV functionality.

“Indeed, this generally accepted model has a number of substantial drawbacks, not least of which are the fact that coverage of broadcast TV networks may not extend into underground rail systems where one of the key target groups (commuters) can often be found. Also, there is the implicit assumption that commuters will time their commute to coincide with the broadcast of the mobile TV content that they want to watch. Perhaps it is time to think outside the mobile TV box,” Morrish continued.

These drawbacks will likely limit demand for broadcast mobile TV, despite growing latent demands from consumers for such services.

Analysys is a provider of strategy and management consultant in the field of telecommunications, media sector and IT, with offices in Dublin, Cambridge, London, Madrid, Milan, Manchester, Paris, Washington DC and Singapore.

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Leo Blanco is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.