Telephia launches audience measurement panel for Mobile TV.

Telephia announced the launch of the industry’s first mobile television user panel. This longitudinal research panel will provide the mobile industry with detailed measurement of the attitudes and behaviors among the rapidly growing mobile TV audience. Telephia will begin by tracking users of the current unicast-based services (e.g. the MobiTV-based offerings on Sprint and Cingular Wireless, and Verizon’s V CAST service). The panel will expand to include subscribers of multicast mobile TV networks when they launch in late 2006 and 2007. Telephia is currently building its panel in the U.S. and the U.K., and will expand coverage to the rest of Europe and parts of Asia in 2007.

Telephia research shows that more than two million or 1.4 percent of the U.S. wireless user base subscribed to a mobile video plan during the first quarter of 2006. The average U.S. mobile TV subscriber spends $40 a month more on wireless services than non-TV subscribers, according to Telephia.

“Mobile TV represents a huge revenue opportunity for companies in all parts of the communications and entertainment value chain,” said Sid Gorham, President and CEO, Telephia. “To execute successfully on this exciting opportunity, the industry needs detailed research that tracks the evolving behavior and preferences of the mobile TV user. Our clients are particularly interested in using audience measurement data to target advertising and interactive commerce.”

“The scale of Telephia’s monthly consumer survey program allows us to easily recruit mobile TV users to join the panel,” added Gorham. “At 1.4 percent of the U.S. subscriber base, it’s still a relative low incidence group. But because of the large volume of mobile users we survey, Telephia has the breadth and depth to develop such a panel.”

Hispanics and African-Americans Skew High Mobile TV Usage

Telephia shows that the Hispanic and Black/African-American demographic groups made up 23 and 19 percent of the mobile TV subscriber base in the U.S. during Q1 2006, respectively (see Table 1). This is approximately double the share these groups represent of the broader mobile user population.

“The early popularity of mobile TV with these groups continues the demographic trend we see in the adoption of all advanced mobile data services,” said Gorham. “Mobile TV will allow marketers to reach this audience with a wide range of innovative advertising and commerce approaches.”

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