Tracking Mobile TV Audiences

More than 2 million wireless service users subscribe to mobile TV, according to research released from Telephia‘s newly formed audience measurement panel for mobile TV.

Unicast-based services like MobiTV offered by Sprint and Cingular and Verizon’s V Cast service are the primary services offered in the U.S. The current number of subscribers surpasses 2 million, which equals 1.4 percent of the U.S. wireless user base. Mobile TV subscribers typically pay about $40 more per month on wireless services than the average mobile phone subscriber.

Minority groups take up mobile TV service at a higher rate than cell phone subscriptions in general. Hispanics compose 23 percent of mobile TV subscribers, compared to the group’s 10 percent market share of wireless subscribers. African Americans make up 19 percent of TV-on-the-go subscribers, compared to 11 percent of all wireless subscribers. White, or Caucasian, mobile TV viewers make up 47 percent and 72 percent of all wireless service users.

Telephia’s audience measurement panel for mobile TV is derived from a longitudinal research panel. It currently tracks users of current unicast-based services. Telephia’s survey program includes in-depth interviews with over 350,000 mobile subscribers in eight countries, though the mobile TV dataset only tracks the U.S. and U.K. markets.