Motorola Finds New Opportunities For Video Service Providers

Motorola Finds New Opportunities for Video Service Providers
Posted by: BBC Wires

HORSHAM, PA – Video service providers can take advantage of consumer demand for social media to offer new services, according to a new study by Motorola Mobility (soon to be part of Google).

Key trends:
- Social TV, mobile TV, personal cloud services and home automation are redefining the home ecosystem.
- Consumers believe digital entertainment and social media enhance the traditional TV experience.
- New forms of entertainment and connected services create additional revenue streams for service providers and opportunities to strengthen customer relationships.

Motorola Mobility’s 2011 Media Engagement Barometer – an independent global study of video consumption habits among 9,000 consumers in 16 markets – identified consumer demand for mobile TV, social TV, connected home and personal cloud services. Each of these categories offers service providers opportunities to expand value-added services, improve customer loyalty and tap into new revenue streams.

“Consumers are constantly connected – and they want ubiquitous access to their content and communities,” says John Burke, senior vice president and general manager, Converged Experiences, Motorola Mobility. “They don’t care about the technology to make all of this happen; they simply want it to work and expect it to fit into their daily routines. The convergence trend upon us is a tremendous opportunity for our customers to capitalize on delivering this simple, intuitive experience in the home.”

On-Demand Viewing Is a Challenge
Worldwide, viewers now watch TV and other video for an average of 15 hours per week. U.S. respondents now watch 21 hours of TV per week, two hours more than in 2010.

However, the percentage of U.S. viewers who watch on-demand TV rose to 18 percent in 2011, compared with 5 percent last year. The U.K. had a similar increase, with 15 percent of consumers watching on-demand TV in 2011, compared with 8 percent in 2010. To retain viewers for initial airings, service providers can offer integrated social TV, which can offer viewers a reason to watch the initial program airing.

Consumers Like Social TV
With consumers spending an average of 12 hours online per week and another six hours dedicated to social media, online engagement has become important. Globally, three of five respondents said they had discussed TV programs with friends via social networks. Nearly half said they would be interested in this type of service – representing a huge opportunity for service providers.

Slightly more respondents (43 percent) said they would prefer accessing a social TV service using a PC, smartphone or tablet versus the television set (40 percent). The great majority of respondents would want to use a social TV service to comment on the programs they watch, though t-commerce was another application that drew significant interest. A third possible social TV application is video chat; support for this feature was especially high in China, with 58 percent of respondents interested, compared with 37 percent of U.S. respondents and only 19 percent in the U.K.

Mobile TV Is Finally Here
More than a third (37 percent) of global respondents said they watched video outside the home on a smartphone, tablet, PC or laptop.

- Twenty-three percent of U.S. respondents said they watched mobile TV on their smartphones, a fivefold increase over 2010. Twice as many – a full 46 percent – of Japanese respondents reported watching mobile TV on their smartphones in 2011.
- More than a quarter (27 percent) of global consumers aged 25-34 watched TV on a mobile device once or twice a week, as did just over a third of consumers in the 45-54 and 55+ age groups.

The Personal Cloud Takes Shape
A September 2011 Juniper Research study predicts consumer cloud revenues will reach $6.5 billion by 2016 – and that growth is driven by video and music services. This is supported by Motorola’s study, which found that 52 percent of U.S. consumers were interested in a service that enabled access to their personal data (such as videos, photos and other information) on any device, from anywhere in the world.

Two of five global respondents said they would be interested in a personal cloud type of service but would need to be convinced of its value. Interest was particularly high among respondents in Singapore (50 percent), South Korea (49 percent), UAE (39 percent) and the U.S. (37 percent).
Connected Home Services on the Rise
Respondents in Mexico (49 percent), Turkey (43 percent) and China (42 percent) are the most interested in being able to manage parts of the home remotely via a smartphone, tablet or laptop, while Australia, Sweden and the U.S. were close to the global average of 30 percent.

Globally, 36 percent of respondents said they would like their communications provider, instead of home security alarm companies or utility providers, to supply a home automation service. Finally, the research found that controlling the home remotely is of more interest to men (34 percent) than women (26 percent).


Contact me at tradd.duggan@gt-t.net at GTT Global Telecom & Technology for more Info 720-259-5419: Whether price shopping for local carriers,seeking Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), MPLS. VPLS. Point to Point Networking, IP Transit or better Peering -we have over 700 and 100 On Net POP's in 46 markets! GTT has a suite of offerings that nobody else has. We can help you choose the best of breed technologies and services from hundreds of telecom carriers. We're also globally in 80 countries -covering 800 suppliers and include a suite of our own modular technology and managed services options.