User Acceptance of Mobile TV Services

Transcription

1 FinPilot Final Report User Acceptance of Mobile TV Services Authors: Eija Kaasinen, Tuomo Kivinen, Minna Kulju, Liisa Lindroos and Virpi Oksman (VTT), Jonas Kronlund (Elisa), Mia Uronen (Forum Virium Helsinki)

2 Report s title FinPilot Final Report User Acceptance of Mobile TV Services Publisher Forum Virium Helsinki Project name Finnish Mobile TV / FinPilot Authors Pages Eija Kaasinen, Tuomo Kivinen, Minna Kulju, 88 Liisa Lindroos and Virpi Oksman (VTT), Jonas Kronlund (Elisa), Mia Uronen (Forum Virium Helsinki) Keywords mobile TV, interactive services, user acceptance, field trial Forum Virium Helsinki contact information Radiokatu D, RTI house FI-000 Helsinki info@forumvirium.fi Project partners Finnish Mobile TV: Destia, Digita, Elisa, Forum Virium Helsinki, City of Helsinki, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Logica, MTV Media, Nokia, SWelcom, TeliaSonera, TietoEnator, Veikkaus, VTT, YIT, Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. FinPilot: a

3 Summary FinPilot study piloted mobile television services in Digita s DVB-H network in the Helsinki area with a panel of 7 users. The panel was using mobile television services with Nokia N77 phones from July 007 to February 008 as a part of their normal lives. In addition to commercially available services, the panellists were introduced with 0 different pilot services. User feedback of the pilot services was gathered with web surveys and interviews. The usage was established with about half of the respondents using mobile TV at least once a week. The users described many usage routines that they had adopted. Mobile TV was watched in the morning when having breakfast and late in the evening to keep from disturbing the rest of the family. Short usage sessions during commuting and when having breaks were common. Often mobile TV was used as an extension to primary TV and as a background noise. The value of mobile TV was seen rather in entertainment than in useful information. Still, news in a wider sense was the content of most interest to the users. Taking mobile TV into use was found easy. The quality of sound and especially the quality of image got very positive feedback. Even though the users were informed about the limited coverage of DVB-H broadcast, coverage was mentioned first when asked about problems in use. With the new TV channels and video on demand, there seems to be a need for easier overview of the content and also firmer connections to services on other media. Familiar add-on services such as MTV and Nelonen teletext services were very well accepted, and it was a positive surprise to the panellists that these services offered some better functionalities than conventional teletext. Also the local teletext service, Super teletext, got quite good feedback. The panellists saw that add-on services can be made easy to access and use. However, in the pilot setting some add-on services required extra installation efforts and some services were introduced as separate applications. This lowered the grades for ease of adoption and ease of use. Main problems in taking the add-on services into use were related to knowing the existence of those services. Mobile TV broadcasting content is already interesting and attractive to the users. Interactive services will require learning from the users so that they will get used to looking for those add-on services. The path to add-on interactive services should go from familiar content such as teletext to more versatile services. The potential of the mobile phone should be utilised to provide the users with even more topical, even more local and even more personal content. These kinds of services would change mobile TV from an additional TV set to a medium in its own right.

4 Preface When the Finnish Mobile TV project was launched in 00, the expectations for mobile television were high. Being the first project of Forum Virium Helsinki, it was also very important for the organisation that had recently been set up. Many Finnish developers of mobile television signed up for the joint project. The community website designed and produced by Forum Virium Helsinki, supported the project. The Finnish Mobile TV project was launched in order to allow Finnish developers, who already were at the forefront of mobile design in the world, to pilot the technology, contents and new services of mobile television. The faces and voices of the test users could also be seen and heard in the project. The comments of the users will certainly be seen in future mobile television services to be published. The test users views and opinions are presented for examination elsewhere in this report. Television has had its fair share of challenges in the last years. These challenges have not necessarily directly involved mobile television, but they have presented the mobile distribution of digital television with new questions of credibility and liability. In the future mobile television will probably be just one of the distribution channels for television, along with various other distribution channels. Mobile television, however, makes it possible to use a more local, up-to-date and personal approach, compared to the television set that is fixed in a corner of the living room. The consumer s opinion is the most important with the key question being: What can I use mobile television for, and why would I use it? Mobile television and the development work in Finland have stirred considerable interest in the world. Several international delegations and experts have familiarized themselves with the project. There is a good possibility that Finnish mobile television will become a successful product with a global demand. I would like to express my gratitude to all partners in Finnish Mobile TV: Destia, Digita, Elisa, the City of Helsinki, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Logica, MTV Media, Nokia, SWelcom, TeliaSonera, TietoEnator, Veikkaus, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, YIT and Yleisradio. My special thanks go to the authors of this report: Eija Kaasinen, Tuomo Kivinen, Minna Kulju, Liisa Lindroos and Virpi Oksman of VTT, Mia Uronen of Forum Virium Helsinki, as well as Jonas Kronlund of Elisa, who has piloted the mobile television project in its various stages. Jarmo Elukka Eskelinen Executive Director Forum Virium Helsinki

5 The Authors Thanks FinPilot work has been steered by a Finnish Mobile TV Working Group lead by Jonas Kronlund from Elisa. The other working group members have been Juha Vesaoja from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, Markku Lamminluoto from TeliaSonera, Kenneth Falck from Swelcom, Marianne Antola from Nokia, Mia Uronen and Pekka Koponen from Forum Virium Helsinki, Tarja Rautio from Digita, and Caj Södergård from VTT. We would like to thank all the Finnish Mobile TV partners, and especially the working group members for their valuable guidance and feedback. We are grateful to Digita who allowed the pilot services to be broadcasted in their DVB-H network, Nokia who equipped the panellists with the N77 mobile TV enabled phones and Sofia Digital who was in charge of developing most of the pilot services. We would also like to thank the companies and organisations who provided the pilot services and Forum Virium Helsinki for hosting the study and taking care of the dissemination of the results and this report. Last but not least we wish to thank the 7 voluntary test users of our user panel. Even if facing occasional technical problems with the pre-commercial pilot services, they spent a lot of time evaluating them and gave us valuable feedback both by filling in web questionnaires and by participating in face-to-face interviews. This kind of voluntariness is urgently needed to guarantee us all better services in the future!..008, Tampere Authors

6 Contents Summary... Preface... The Authors Thanks... Introduction...9. Evolution of mobile TV...9. Finnish Mobile TV project Forum Virium Helsinki to coordinate the FiMTV project Finnish Mobile TV project objectives Supporting the Developer Community..... Dissemination: Presenting FiMTV in big events..... The road to the second phase of the project, the FinPilot.... Finpilot study... Related Research.... FinPilot in Setup of the study..... Results.... Podracing project...8. Other studies The Big Picture of Mobile TV... Prestudy Eurovision event service.... Setup of the study..... The evaluated services..... Evaluation method The interviewees Results..... First impressions..... Video on demand Add-on services..... Usage interests..... Content production.... Conclusions... FinPilot Study.... Aims of the study.... Technical framework.... Pilot services...7. User panel Evaluation methods Taking mobile television into use Initial impressions..... Surveys of individual services..... Final interviews... Initial expectations and first impressions.... Before the trial.... After two weeks of use...

7 Evaluation of Individual Services Overall mobile TV usage Elisa TV Description of the service Evaluation setup Results.... Stadi TV MHZ Video on demand service..... Description of the service..... Evaluation setup..... Results.... StadiTV Super teletext service Description of the service Evaluation setup Results Stadi TV local TV channel Description of the service Evaluation setup..... Results.... Mobile TV Infochannel..... Description of the service..... Evaluation setup..... Results....7 Iskelmä and The Voice interactive radio channels and Radio Nova Description of the service Evaluation setup Results....8 MTV and Nelonen teletext services Description of the services Evaluation setup Results of MTV teletext Results of Nelonen teletext Overall Results Usage situations and times Preferred channels User Acceptance of Mobile TV and Add-on Services Broadcast vs. on demand Interactive services Locality User generated vs. professionally made content Pricing expectations Conclusions References

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9 Introduction. Evolution of mobile TV Mobile TV has been one of the most appealing mobile services according to several user pilots all over the world. Mobile TV integrates the major mass medium TV, and the most personal medium the mobile phone. This combination could at its best enable much more than just an additional portable TV set. The road to richer mobile services probably started with SMS text messages, which could contain a limited amount of text. Soon after that logos and simple ring tones were offered. Browsable WAP pages enabled the provision of new services, but at first the emphasis was also on textual content. MMS picture messages introduced the possibility of building and sending presentations that even contained short video and sound samples in addition to text and images. Small portable TV sets that work in the traditional analogue TV network were introduced to the market a long time ago, but the quality of the image was not sufficiently good in mobile use. Furthermore, analogue TV broadcasting ceased in Finland in late summer 007. DVB-T, i.e. the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting network, does not in its present form meet the special requirements of mobile phones, as the reception is processing-intensive and therefore depletes batteries too quickly. A receiver suitable for a mobile phone also suffers from different types of interference much more than a stationary terrestrial receiver and therefore requires improved fault tolerance. Although DVB-T reception is becoming a standard feature of high-end laptop PCs, for example, their use context is still quite different from mobile phones. Mobile phones have featured FM radio receivers for many years already, and the only electronic medium really missing has indeed been TV. With a GPRS connection it became possible to browse web pages and watch short video clips. Increasingly fast third generation mobile networks enable the user to download or upload sizeable files, for example allowing place independent communication by with large file attachments or even realtime video blogging. Most operators have already launched a mobile TV offering on the G side, but this will most probably not be enough when addressing a mature mass market. The capacity of the current G networks has not been seen as sufficient for massive simultaneous viewing and there will probably be a need for a true broadcast solution on the mobile side also. Consequently, a new digital TV technology is needed to meet the special requirements of a small wireless device. There are currently three major standards ISDB-T (Terrestrial Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) in Japan, DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcast) and its variations in South Korea and mainly DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting for Handhelds) in Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. MediaFLO has gained the most momentum in the USA. 9

10 . Finnish Mobile TV project The Finnish Mobile TV (FiMTV) project was inspired by the first Finnish mobile TV pilot FinPilot, which was carried out in 00. The pilot was considered successful and its results indicated that there is a market for mobile TV services and that customers are also ready to pay for them. A brief description of the first FinPilot can be read in the chapter Related research (pages -8). The steering group for this initial FinPilot, consisting of seven companies (Digita, Elisa, MTV Media, Nokia, SWelcom, TeliaSonera and YLE) saw a need to keep up the common efforts in this area and also broaden the scope towards a larger developer community... Forum Virium Helsinki to coordinate the FiMTV project The Forum Virium Helsinki (FVH) cluster was founded at the end of 00 by the initiative of several major enterprises, among the companies who took part in FinPilot 00, and the City of Helsinki. Forum Virium Helsinki acts as an open innovation environment to promote the development of digital contents and services in the Helsinki metropolitan region. FVH brings together ideas and content creators with high-growth and established companies as well as public sector organizations. Forum Virium Helsinki became a natural home for the new Finnish Mobile TV project, which began in the end of 00 and was estimated to last for two years. Companies that took part in the project were Destia, Digita, Elisa, City of Helsinki, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Logica, MTV Media, Nokia, SWelcom, TeliaSonera, TietoEnator, Veikkaus, VTT, YIT and Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE... Finnish Mobile TV project objectives The aim for the two-year FiMTV project was to ease the beginning of innovative and interactive mobile TV services by offering service developers DVB-H capacity and mobile TV devices, and by organising networking events. The vision of FiMTV was that mobile TV will become a commercial success in Finland. The mission was to help partners build future business now. The strategy for Phase was to facilitate development of unique services and for Phase to focus on end users and collect feedback on innovative and interactive services. 0

11 Figure -. Visual image of the Finnish Mobile TV project.. Supporting the Developer Community In the early stage of the Finnish Mobile TV project the steering group realised that development of innovative mobile TV services was too big a challenge for many SMEs. Therefore FiMTV set out to provide service developers with a collaborative framework as well as infrastructure support. This was done by providing service developers free DVB-H network capacity and early mobile TV devices by Nokia for a limited period of time, but also by facilitating a developer community, which included six networking events around various topics, and web based tools for collaboration at The FiMTV Community website was produced and moderated by Forum Virium Helsinki. The Developer Community was promoted by Mr. Esa Blomberg from the City of Helsinki Business Development Unit. Developer Community had approximately 00 members coming from various organizations. The six Developer Forums each had 0-0 participants.

12 The topics of the six Developer Forums Mobile TV Introduction,..00 Piloting experiences so far Glimpse at future possibilities Technology Presentation, Sketching near future roadmap Workshops around project ideas Business Discussion,..00 Platform status and project presentations Business models and international situation Domestic Cooperation, FiMTV project experiences so far Situation in Turku, Tampere and Oulu Media School Cooperation, Presenting FiMTV piloting opportunity Idea of common university channel Interactivity in Practice, Presenting first results of FinPilot Explaining approaches to interactivity DVB-H network capacity Until 0 November 00, Forum Virium Helsinki arranged the availability of a whole DVB-H multiplex, largely covering the Helsinki metropolitan region. The FiMTV steering group approved requests for capacity by various projects. Capacity was allocated to 0 projects which can be categorized under these areas: Domestic TV Channels Foreign TV Channels Enhanced Radio Services Community Communication Services Gaming Services Event Communication Services Public Services Machine-to-machine Services In March 00, Digita was rewarded with the DVB-H operating lisence. Digita started its commercial DVB-H networking business in December 00, covering per cent of the population of Finland.

13 .. Dissemination: Presenting FiMTV in big events The dissemination of Finnish Mobile TV project included for example participating in ICT related conferences and exhibitions. The most important of those was IST 00 Conference and Exhibition that was organized by the EU Commission in Helsinki on - November 00. Forum Virium Helsinki and Finnish Mobile TV project were presented in the IST 00 exhibition, as part of the Finnish Pavilion arranged by Tekes. Besides presenting the Finnish Mobile TV by using mobile TV devices and showing a video presentation, there was an exceptional experiment: live broadcast from the event produced especially for mobile TV by Arcada Polytechnic students. DINA IST Mobile DVB-H project implemented in cooperation with the Finnish Mobile TV project aroused wide interest at IST 00 event. DINA presented new and unique programme formats for mobile television. The DINA channel consisted of multimedia services that were offered for different user terminal devices during the IST 00 Conference and Exhibition. The mobile TV channel offered interactive video blogs, media art, tips on leisure activities, music, reportages produced in advance and above all direct broadcasts recorded and receivable with a mobile phone. The programme palette was tailored primarily to serve foreign visitors at the fair. The experience was good, and it aroused hopes to continue with future projects together both on behalf of Arcada and FiMTV. The next project to be was DINA Host City during the Eurovision song contest in Helsinki on May 007. More of this in chapter, pages -. During IST 00, Forum Virium Helsinki also organized in co-operation with INCCOM two seminars which discussed mobile TV. The first session Mobile TV the challenges for live interactive multimedia services focused on lessons learned from the mobile television trials. The afternoon session Future perspectives of mobile multimedia content focused on mobile lifestyle, cross media and mobile TV services. xmin active demo sessions concluded the day... The road to the second phase of the project, the FinPilot During the first phase of Finnish Mobile TV project, it was soon discovered interactivity to be a service area of which there still is little experience. However, interactivity is seen as an important server of added possibilities by several service providers and users alike.

14 The second user pilot of the FiMTV project, FinPilot, therefore focused on interactivity. The organisations that took part in FinPilot were Digita, Elisa, MTV Media, Nokia, SWelcom, TeliaSonera, TietoEnator, YLE, VTT and Forum Virium Helsinki. Meanwhile FinPilot continued until the end of April 008, the FiMTV steering group at the end of December 007 formally concluded the FiMTV project according to plans. Finland has been at the forefront of mobile TV development for some time and also encountered certain challenges along the way. The conclusion of the project is nevertheless that broadcasted TV, video-on-demand and various forms of interactivity all together will enable innovative services that eventually bring success to the concept of mobile TV.. Finpilot study FinPilot study piloted mobile television services in Digita s DVB-H network in the Helsinki area with a panel of 7 users. The panel was using mobile television services from July 007 to February 008. In addition to commercially available services, they were introduced with 0 different pilot services. User feedback of the pilot services was gathered with web surveys and interviews. The results give feedback on user acceptance of mobile TV and related interactive services. The results also highlight actual mobile TV usage practises as the panellists were using the services as a part of their normal lives for over six months. In this report, we will start with an overview of related research to introduce the experiences of mobile television thus far both in Finland and internationally. Special focus is on the original FinPilot results from 00 and on VTT s Podracing project results. We then describe the pre-study that was carried out in connection to the Eurovision song contest in Helsinki May 007 with demos and interviews at the Helsinki Host City stand in the city centre. The FinPilot panel setup is described in chapter : panellists, pilot services and the technical environment of the field trial. Chapter describes initial experiences of the panellists: expectations before starting the pilot, experiences in taking into use the mobile phone with mobile TV functionality and experiences after two weeks of use. The evaluation of the pilot services started after months usage of the commercial mobile television services. In chapter we describe the evaluation results of the individual pilot services. Chapter 7 concludes with usage practises and overall user acceptance of mobile television and the add-on services based on final interviews with the panellists.

15 Related Research. FinPilot in 00.. Setup of the study The original FinPilot or the Finnish DVB-H trial was carried out in 00 and it was organised by the partners of Finnish Mobile TV Pilot: Digita, MTV Media, Nelonen, YLE, Elisa, TeliaSonera and Nokia (Mäki, 00; Internal FinPilot results report) A sample of 00 test users was recruited from a random selection of operators customers. The sample represented both sexes (% women) and age groups 8-70 (7% age 8-0). Nokia 770 smart phones were used as test devices and broadcasting covered the Helsinki metropolitan area. Pilot users paid a monthly access fee (,9 e) for basic services and separate fees (,9 e for the first month, later included in the basic fee) for additional channels and special events such as Formula weekends. The users received phones from the mobile TV pilot project but were using their own subscriptions. The piloting was carried out by Research International Finland and Finnpanel during March-June 00. Surveys were organised before the trial, after - weeks usage and after months usage. Focus group interviews were organised in parallel to the surveys... Results The main result was that mobile TV service was considered to have future potential, assuming that pricing and content are in line with consumers expectations and needs. Of the pilot participants surveyed, 8% thought that mobile TV will become popular in the future. Requirements for mobile TV adoption included handset usability and acceptance, technical performance and reliability, usability of mobile TV service and content that suits irregular and short viewing periods. The main usage motivations were to pass time and to stay updated. The main usage contexts were at home alone, at work and while travelling on public transportation. Short and easy to follow content was preferred for travelling whereas at home mobile TV could be used as a secondary TV when the main TV was in use by others or before going to sleep. At work mobile TV took to a great extent the role of a radio; it was used as background entertainment. Mobile TV usage was more spontaneous than normal TV viewing: mobile TV was watched when time and the situation allowed. After the initial enthusiasm TV viewing became refined to certain moments, certain channels and certain programme formats. Of the sample surveyed, -70% was using mobile TV on a weekly basis. Active users (00 users) were watching mobile TV twice a week, 0-0 min per session and light users (00 users) once a week, 0 minutes per session.

16 People seemed to use different content types in different locations. News and information services were used everywhere throughout the day, and the mobile phone was considered as a valuable channel especially when something newsworthy suddenly happened. Live broadcasts of sports were watched anywhere if there was no conventional TV available. Series and entertainment services were viewed in short periods while waiting, for example, for public transportation. Music was also listened to on the move. Films and longer programmes were only watched when the conventional TV was not available. Mobile TV was often viewed during the daytime, which differs from the peak viewing times of traditional television. National channels were preferred due to the familiar content. The pilot participants considered news, sports and entertainment as content best suited to mobile TV, with % of the respondents preferring news, 7% sports and % entertainment. Figure - illustrates overall customer experience during the pilot both in the trial phase (after - weeks usage) and the adoption phase (after - months of usage). Content offering was considered quite good, and towards the end of the trial the grades actually improved. Usability and overall watching experience both got fairly good grades. Technical functionality got the lowest grades in FinPilot but still the grades were moderate. The touch screen and virtual keyboard on Nokia 770 were found difficult to use by some participants. Battery life and size of the phone also got some critical remarks. The clarity of the screen and sound quality got positive scores. However, there were a few complaints that the resolution was not sufficient for fast sports programmes or reading textual information on the broadcast. Starting the mobile TV application and updating the channel were slow. Problems were also faced in indoor coverage. Figure -. Customer experience in FinPilot (Source: Research International)

17 Mobile TV often acted as a substitute for radio users followed some programmes, e.g. discussion programmes and documentaries, using just the sound. Also programmes that did not require too much or too long concentration such as morning TV, talk shows, soap operas and cartoons were found suitable for mobile TV. Considering sports programmes, the users thought that mobile TV was a better option than mere radio but the video quality was not sufficient for fast sports such as ice hockey and football. Generally, films and drama series were found least suitable for mobile TV because visual experience suffered on the small screen. However, the multiple media possibility was utilised e.g. by starting to watch a movie on the mobile when travelling home and then continuing on the main TV when arriving at home. Regarding payment, the users found a fixed monthly fee complemented with pay per view for special content as a well accepted pricing model. The main value of mobile TV was the possibility to watch TV anywhere. More than half of the test users believed that mobile TV has future potential and % of the participants were potential buyers of future Mobile TV services. Interactivity was experimented on a very small scale in the original FinPilot study in 00, mainly by Elisa, and it was not possible to draw many conclusions on the user experience from those mostly technical tests. The interactivity possibilities mainly consisted of a banner with links to the left of the TV screen (see Figure -), which then lead to more advanced interactive functions in the web browser, in this case synchronized on the server side to the broadcast transmission (see Figure -). Figure -.Screen capture from the broadcast part of an interactive service of the original FinPilot. 7

18 Figure -. Screen capture from the online part of an interactive service of the original FinPilot.. Podracing project VTT together with the University of Tampere and Technical University of Helsinki studied different delivery and content types for mobile television in the Podracing project (00-007). Different delivery paradigms: broadcast, on-demand and download were evaluated in three field trials in G, DVB-H and Wi-Fi networks. Special focus was on studying news delivery in different formats. To explore the use of different delivery methods and content consumption, a mobile TV service prototype, called Podracing was developed (Ollikainen, 008). Podcasted content was delivered to the user s mobile by subscriptions using the same metaphor as subscribed RSS feeds on the Web. The subscriber could choose among the available feed channels. Stored locally on the handset, podcasted content could then be viewed without network connection. Each field trial lasted for one month and involved 0 users. Figure -. Podracing project studied G television (Photo: Elisa), DVB-H broadcasting and Podcasting Mobility and real time effect were considered the most important characteristics of mobile news. Only the latest news had high demand, as real time feeling was considered important. Compared to earlier studies on mobile video content (Repo et al., 00), the use of earpieces with the mobile phone had become especially 8

19 common. This made it more convenient to follow media content, for instance, in public transport without disturbing others. In Podracing trials the quality of reception was one of the major technical problems perceived in mobile TV use. Users perceived a significant difference between different delivery methods, i.e. G and DVB-H and pre-downloading, and the difference affected the length of watching sessions of mobile TV. Although podcasting via the mobile phone was quite a new concept for the test users, after the trial they all thought that this delivery method was a major addition for mobile TV. Podcasting as a delivery method was considered most suitable for loading entertainment content such as TV series, but also news broadcasts were downloaded for later watching. Although typical mobile use is spontaneous, most users did not consider it inconvenient to subscribe and download podcasts at home for later watching elsewhere (Oksman et al., 008). Similar to some earlier mobile television studies, the results of the Podcasting project indicate that news is very often the most popular mobile television content, and news viewers prefer to have live feeds. Entertainment is popular podcasted or loaded content. The findings of the trial confirmed many previous studies concerning the contexts of using mobile TV. Mobile television was mostly used in the public sphere. The test users mainly picked the content and channels which were already familiar (Oksman et al., 007). The test users expected mobile TV to offer additional services compared to conventional TV and media. There was a demand for additional services, and the test users especially wished for more real-time and specially tailored content for mobile TV. The users stated that a mobile television service should be able to give a feeling that a user actually knows and receives more than others. Users hoped that a mobile service would match up to their real needs and use situations. Whilst the use of mobile television is usually very spontaneous and low commitment, just surfing around and viewing meaningless program flow is not necessarily enough. Mobile television in itself was new to the users and thus it is understandable that the broadcast was considered the most interesting feature of the service. Three out of eleven test users said they expect mobile television to carry interactive elements. The test users seemed to understand interactivity mostly in connection with buying or advertising purposes. None of the test users were interested in chat, where users could discuss the programmes with each other. They also disliked the idea of voting for something trivial, just for fun. Four users said that they would like to give feedback. Of the test users surveyed, 8% preferred professional made content and % preferred amateur made. Professional content was appreciated for editorial and technical quality whereas user generated content was considered funny, surprising and life-like. Half of the test users said that they would be interested in uploading their own video clips to the service. 9

20 . Other studies The usage of mobile phones evolves in three general user spheres of home, work and public. Quite typically, mobile phones are regarded as devices for use in the public sphere, for example while waiting or commuting. They are used to kill time and to keep their users entertained or up-to-date (Oksman et al., 007). Some studies have shown that mobile services are measurably used in the private area. For example a mobile television pilot in Oxford, UK, revealed that about 0 percent of the test users viewed mobile television at home and didn t move anywhere while viewing. A typical time for using mobile television was late night, in bed, just before one was falling asleep. (Dowell, 00). Cui, Chipchase and Jung (007) carried out a qualitative study of eight young early adopters of mobile TV in Seoul, South Korea four months after the launching of mobile TV service. With these users, the average weekly use was over hours. The novelty value was the main motivation of adopting mobile TV, and the users felt that this was one more gadget to try. Typical usage situations were killing time while commuting, personal use at home, secret use at school and macro breaks. Cui et al. emphasize that breaks needed to be long enough to have time to set up the device, e.g. changing channel took up to ten seconds. That is why they introduce the concept of macro breaks. The most popular content in this trial were radio channels. Cui et al. suggest that mobile TV should rather be called personal TV, even if in their trial shared watching with up to three friends was usual. However, the value of mobile TV seemed to be in personal use rather than mobility. The use of mobiles in the public sphere has certain limitations. For example users have been worried about becoming absorbed in mobile multimedia content, which requires their visual attention. They fear increased risks of accidents and lapses. The possibility of listening to music or the radio while on the move is thus highly valued, because it doesn t need visual attention. Also text legibility may be difficult when on the move (Knoche, 00). Digital music is one of the most popular forms of mobile entertainment and it is supposed to be a key driver for customer adoption of new G services. According to a Siemens survey, the most attractive applications for American consumers are mobile , mobile music and mobile TV (Siemens Communications, 00). The findings of a number of studies made on mobile TV show that the most popular content is news. (Södergård, 00; Knoche & McCarthy, 00; Mäki, 00). News is well suited to mobile phones, because the use of mobile TV bursts often lasts less than 0 minutes. Knoche and McCarthy (00) list mobile television content types by their popularity as. news,. music,. sports,. cartoons,. movies,. soap operas, and 7. sitcoms. Although short watching sessions are typical to mobile TV, longer durations (0-0 min) were also observed in the trials by Oksman et al. (008). 0

21 News channels are also quite easily re-broadcasted over the mobile phone, because the content of the channel is continually new: if the user selects the mobile news channel (s)he is most likely to get what (s)he expected. Other channels may have to think how well their broadcasting is fitting to the mobile environment. For example, if a mobile TV user selects a music channel, it s disappointing if there isn t music in the agenda during her/his short period of viewing. The limited time of mobile television use affects both the type of content and the way that people consume it (Södergård, 00;, Mäki, 00). Grobel (00) predicts that most likely, customized services which address specific interests of the individual user will probably become more important. The mobile phone as media is suitable for many different situations. Mobility, diversity and real time effect are considered to be the most important characteristics of the service and that combination distinguishes the use of the news service from other media use. In the Podracing project users appreciated updated information and information-rich media forms for mobile news delivery as well as the ability to select the media format suited for the situation. There was high demand for the latest news in mobiles. Users also appreciated fast functions and ease of use (Oksman et al., 007). As personal communication devices are turning into multimedia communication devices delivering news and other mass media content, new questions about user experience challenges will emerge (Oksman et al., 007). In the study by Oksman et al. (007) new scrolling user interface implementation signified the service providers investment and commitment to developing a good service, and this increased the users positive attitude towards the service (Oksman et al., 007). User generated podcasting audio and video file sharing to a portable device is also a significant phenomenon and regarded as one of the most important content types for mobile TV (Oksman et al., 007). There are plenty of amateur podcasters all over the world, which is seen for example in the enormous success of YouTube. The whole podcasting or mobcasting phenomenon may affect the forms of present media supply. For example the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE, which started its podcasting experiment in autumn 00, has recounted that one of the most wished-for podcast content is a radio play. The popularity of podcasting certainly challenges traditional media and their business models. Overall, user generated content multiplies the whole media supply, and users have countless of channels to get content just to their liking. Clearly, user choices and preferences will determine the success of mobile TV services. For media companies and consumers, mobile media is nothing new. Print media such as newspapers or magazines are mobile; the same holds true for media such as the car radio, or Walkman (Feldmann, 00). Thus, if new mobile broadcast services are to be successful, questions regarding the relevance of the service to

22 consumers need to be asked. The research needs to ask questions such as: How does the service improve users lives or help them? Why it is valuable to them? It is also important to consider the issues of when and where the usage will take place, as the mobile broadcasting services will most likely be used in different locations and times than fixed media (Picard, 00). Schatz et al. (007) point out that social mobile TV has future potential and it will require both verbal and non-verbal interactive elements for joint TV watching experience. They prioritize chat as the verbal element and suggest Joint zapping, Sharemarks, Presence and Emotions as non-verbal elements. Joint zapping synchronises the current channel of two receivers whereas Sharemarks enables seeing which channels peers are watching. Hübel et al. (007) emphasize that interactivity features in mobile TV have several possibilities extending from changing channels to creating and distributing one s own content. The mobile phone is a promising platform for interactive services as people are already accustomed to engage actively with the device. The combination of mobile telecom networks and broadcast networks offers several application possibilities. As mobile TV usage is characterised by short usage sessions and less intensive usage, Hübel et al. claim that mobile interactive applications shouldn t be just transferred from other medium but they need to be developed for or adapted to mobile environments. They suggest that the mobile EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) could be equipped with several add-on features such as reminders, reviews of programmes by other users, remote recording, voting, chatting and shopping. The mobile phone is especially suitable for shopping as it enables authenticating the user. Hübel et al. also emphasize personalisation e.g. in the form of personalized advertisements. Hübel et al. (007) stress familiarity: Anchors from other media create a familiar environment where users can gradually adopt new interactive features. They suggest that market development of interactive mobile TV applications should be a process of mutual learning involving all stakeholders and also end users. Oksman et al. (008) also point out that people are often drawn to new services and mobile TV itself with the help of established brands and channels. Still, in the Podracing project the test users expected mobile TV to offer additional services to conventional TV and media. Expectations were specially related to getting more real time, more personal, diverse and mobile-tailored content, giving the user the feeling that (s)he actually knows more than others.

23 . The Big Picture of Mobile TV With a global television penetration of almost 90% there is no questioning the popularity of TV as a medium. As mobile phone penetration in Western Europe is at similar figures, the urge to broadcast prescheduled programmes to handheld devices becomes inevitable. Pilots offering different technologies for broadcasting content to mobile devices have made it quite clear that a majority of the consumers feel mobile TV to be an interesting service, for which they even would be willing to pay a reasonable monthly fee. Rapidly reaching a big enough market penetration of mobile TV enabling devices is nevertheless crucial for business to take off. The DVB-H network providers and the handset manufacturers are facing considerable investments before there is even a chance of making a profit, but on the other hand they are the ones that start earning even while mobile TV device penetration is low. Public broadcasting companies may have the mandate to become visible on as many networks as possible, but advertisement based channels have to weigh the additional costs for transmission capacity towards the benefit of reaching just slightly larger number of viewers before the market has matured. The market for pay-tv has recently taken off in a promising direction in Finland and this will eventually be reflected also on the mobile side. It is increasingly evident that digital convergence will blur the distinctions between traditional technologies and media formats. This is reflected in the following theses by Paul Saffo, from his essay Consumers and Interactive Media: A Hierarchy of Desires (00): Winning products will satisfy multiple desires. The most successful products will probably combine entertainment and communications. Different players will be experts at satisfying particular desires. The most successful products of the players will probably relate to their core competence. The biggest wins may come from cross-industry alliances. The biggest novelties may come from alliances that leverage the best understanding of each area. It is clear that mobile TV will create new opportunities for partnerships and value networks between various industries. As the appetite of mobile consumers for new types of media grows, various opportunities for new kinds of crossover products are emerging. Mobile video and TV, broadcasted, streamed on-demand, downloaded or in the form of video phone calls, should support each other in creating new habits of media consumption where the consumer interacts and orders on-demand services over

24 cellular networks parallel to using broadcasted mobile TV. Then mobile TV will surely find its niche in the competition for the end user s time budget. Familiar TV channel brands are the ones that will carry over the trust for quality content to mobile TV. It does not take much effort to simulcast regular TV channels in mobile TV networks, but it does require clearance from both a legislative and rights owner perspective. The nationally operating TV channels will feature strongly among the programmes offered on mobile TV, but it can also be expected that numerous payable international and foreign channels will be available. It would be a waste of bandwidth to not make available broadcasted content for customers of all service operators, but exclusive content rights may on the other hand give an edge in a very competitive market. Simulcast TV doesn t consider mobile TV prime time and some users may soon want something new and different. Many players already understand that opportunities will be lost if they fail to offer desirable content especially made or at least customised for mobile TV. User identification, subscription and invoicing functions, decoding of encrypted data and interactive services require the use of a separate return channel, i.e. the mobile phone network. Mobile phone operators have a natural role as providers of the return channel and in management of invoicing activities. However, it is also be important to search for additional services that would give access to innovative new incoming channels and would also complement the existing mobile products. Interactivity for regular TV already depends on the mobile phone. As the interactive set top box remains a flop in most countries, interactive programme formats rely on showing phone numbers and keywords for SMS voting on screen. SMS based games and chats have become popular as they provide a lucrative way to fill up non-prime-time. Interactivity in mobile TV will probably in the beginning imitate these conventional formats, but in a more user friendly way as the interactions can be added as metadata to the programme stream and accessed through menus in the viewing application. The next steps could be to add links to purchase and download unique material that relate to the programmes. Advertising may trigger larger scale deployment of this kind of interactivity, for example the sponsor offering a unique music video download in exchange for a more profiled contact. Programme formats that support user generated content will need functions for easy uploading of content. Using the small screen in parallel to regular TV could also create new programme formats. Media consumption is becoming more and more fragmented, but niche content can unlikely afford limited broadcast capacity. Therefore it becomes important to offer broadcast DVB-H and unicast G mobile TV services in parallel. Light regulation for

25 mobile TV could empower clusters of non-typical players though, making shared broadcast capacity affordable. Interactivity is important in Mobile TV as it activates the consumer, preferably learning from the start to expect interactive functions in some form in all programmes - even if it in many cases just would mean a link to the home pages of the TV channel. The vision is to create a positive feedback cycle of interactivity, where mobile TV triggers new interactive services, which in their turn add value to the mobile TV channels (Figure -). Figure -. Positive feedback cycle of interactivity. Prestudy Eurovision event service During the Helsinki Eurovision Song Contest week, , the Finnish Mobile TV project realized a user study to evaluate the DINA Host City mobile TV channel. The aim of the study was to get user feedback on mobile TV, especially local and topical content as well as interactive services. The programme flow of the DINA Host City channel was a vivid part of the Host City Helsinki multimedia event service. The Host City Helsinki service brought Eurovision content to multiple platforms including mobile television and Second Life. Forum Virium Helsinki implemented the Host City Helsinki multimedia service in order to assist the Finnish Broadcasting Company and the City of Helsinki in making the Eurovision experience one of a kind. The service was developed in cooperation with Greater Helsinki Promotion, the City of Helsinki and other members and partners.

26 Coordinated by Arcada, the DINA channel produced hours of daily broadcast featuring the hundreds of events during the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki. The channel presented the carnevalistic atmosphere of downtown parties, interwieved fans, tourists and performers, and reported on the official ESCpreparations live from the Hartwall Arena. The DINA Host City service entity was evaluated with field interviews and a survey during the event The aim was to study first impressions and to get feedback from potential users to this kind of local and topical mobile TV service and related interactive services. The mobile version of the service was demonstrated to the interviewees at the Host City Helsinki stand in the city centre of Helsinki.. Setup of the study.. The evaluated services The DVB-H-broadcasted service, DINA Host City, could be received on DVB-Hsupported mobile phones. The new Nokia N9 phone, was used in this study as the demonstration platform (Figure -). N9 was released into the market in Finland during the study (..007). Figure -. Nokia N9