After several months of tests, the TV networks in Japan have added one more service to their portfolio recently: digital broadcasting on customers’ compatible handhelds.
Japan has begun to watch digital television broadcasts on mobile telephones, in a highly anticipated service that could lead to a new genre of TV programs.
The new TV broadcasting service, free for the time being, works through the country’s terrestrial digital broadcast system, relaying images through the air using TV towers instead of satellites and air waves instead of an Internet connection for the streaming video.
Japan is a frontrunner in the new technology, popularly known as "One Seg," after "One Segment," although South Korea has offered the service since the end of last year.
Japan’s mobile TV service is not the world’s first, South Korea, Britain and several other nations offer a similar service, although with different technologies.
Even if it is not the first worldwide – with other countries such as Birtain, the U.S.A. and South Korea already providing similar services – TV broadcasting on mobile phones may be more successful in Japan, as the number of the subscribers are expected to be bigger than anywhere else.
In the short-term, digital terrestrial broadcasting on mobiles with the same programming as normal televisions will be of little interest for us, Masao Nakamura, CEO of Japan’s top mobile operator NTT DoCoMo, said recently.
But we are getting ready by preparing new specific content for the service that could come into use later when new channels are available, he said.
Mobile operators have lined up agreements with television networks to develop the service.
NTT DoCoMo has tied up with Nippon Television and Fuji Television. DoCoMo’s main rival, KDDI, has forged a partnership with TV Asahi.
Subscribers will be able to watch up to nearly three hours of uninterrupted television with a normal mobile phone battery, as opposed to about an hour for current analog broadcasts which require more power.
On a technical level, the service functions well. The image is of good quality, said Pierre Mustiere, a specialist at the consultancy JITEX, or the Japan International Technology and Strategy Experts.
But mobile operators risk losing out if subscribers turn to One Seg instead of pay-to-use Internet on their mobile phones, unless the television service cashes in on interactive features such as links to online advertising.
"Nobody knows for now how to measure the value of interactive features," Mr Mustiere said.
Japan’s 90 million mobile phone users already play video games; download music files, exchange e-mail, read news, trade stocks, store digital photos and surf the Web, all on tiny handset screens half the size of a business card.
Handsets have been on the market in Japan for several weeks that are equipped with the service, which can also broadcast programs onto laptop computers, high-end video-game machines and other terminals.
But, lately finding new phones in stores proved hard as eager consumers have already snapped up the limited number of handsets on the market. Japan’s major mobile carriers say sales are good, but have not disclosed numbers.
However, with Japan’s 90 million mobile phone users, many stores are already running out of handhelds so, for now, it seems to be quite harder to acquire one.