Toward the Take-up of Converged Mobile TV Service: Attributes of Mobile TV and Regulatory Concerns

摘要

ICT innovations contribute not only tremendously in new technology development, but also give birth to new converged multimedia services. Witnessed the popularization of SMS, MMS, ringtone, and color tone, mobile TV comes into our eyes as another representative. Mobile TV exhibits some distinct attributes different from conventional TV service, nor 2G mobile services. It is not obvious so far whether users will adopt it as portable TV program reception or it will evolve to a personalized on-demand multimedia service. This paper examines the attributes of mobile TV in service, system and economic aspects that present concerns for current regulatory framework. These concerns are driven by converged device, alternative delivery systems, network effects and multidirectional interactivity that characterize the convergence in network economy. The regulatory issues raised are analyzed correspondently in terms of market definition, spectrum allocation and service license authorization. Their competitive implications regarding market take-up and service adoption are discussed as well.