“There are a lot of problems in the technology and business of mobile TV,” stated Peter Mercier, Head of the Digital Media Division at BBC Worldwide, who is speaking at the ‘Mobile Infotainment – Mobile TV and Video: Making It Happen’ session in Thursday’s Congress.
Mercier pointed to issues such as fragmented technology diminishing viability for content owners to provide content across all platforms, and the business model, where the upfront cost of content is not justified by the current return. Yet a significant issue for the BBC is the mismatch between content owner and retailer over the value of content.
“As a content owner we have significant costs in terms of rights and production to cover the provision of mobile content,” explained Mercier. “As long as the market is expecting to do deals based on no-guarantee revenue share, and expecting to use widely known content brands in order to build these new platforms without adequate compensation for the value that these brands bring to the table, then it's just not going to be economic for us to really invest in this market.”
