4, 12. 2006
The service areas are going to be extended to every corner of the country by the end of the year. Mobile phones that are applicable to the service are selling well. So will One Seg turn into a big business as a new media?
Attractive contents are the key to high achievement of one segment broadcasting.
On the day when the new broadcasting service started, we asked some people who were viewing television programs on their mobile phones on the street.
"I like this because now I can watch TV on a train," said a 42-year-old company employee. "I will be able to watch pro baseball games on a train on my way home after work and I will know how the games are going. News report with pictures would be much better than radio, too. I don't think I can live without this any more."
"I saw some of the latest models that can receive the One Seg broadcasting at a big electrical appliance store, and I saw that they are selling them for 20,000 yen to 40,000 yen. I think they are a little too expensive. I'd rather listen to music by using my iPod on my way to work by train," said a 26-year-old female office worker.
"I Want to See News and Baseball."
A channel for digital terrestrial broadcasting is divided into 13 segments of which 12 are used by Japan Broadcasting Corp. and private television companies and the remaining one is used for the broadcasting for mobile phones and other portable terminals. This is why the new service is called "One Seg." Its features are that its pictures are of high quality and are not distorted even while the terminals are in motion.
Television programs are shown on the upper side of the screen of the portable terminals while news and other textual data run across the screen at the bottom. While viewing a baseball game on the part of the screen, for instance, the data about the players can be displayed on the bottom of the screen. The programs are the same as those shown on the ordinary digital terrestrial television, and they can be viewed free of charge.
Currently there are three models of mobile phones that are applicable for receiving the One Seg broadcasting on the market. KDD Corp.'s "au" started selling the mobile phone made by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. last December, while NTT Docomo Inc. began selling the Panasonic-made in March. Vodafone K.K., which is to be acquired by Softbank Corp., is to start selling the one made by Sharp Corp. in June, timing with the World Cup Soccer.
They are selling well. "Since they were put on the market, they've been attracting customers much more than we'd expected. We're almost unable to have enough merchandise to catch up with the sales in the Tokyo area. I'd say eight out of ten customers who buy them are men, two are women. Most of them appear to be salaried workers in their 30's who are buying new one to replace the old one they already have. It seems many of them want to see news and pro baseball games on their mobiles," said a sales clerk at a big electric appliance store.
Mobile Phone Operators are of Mixed Opinion, saying New Service "Doesn't Lead to Profit"
The home appliance makers that manufacture mobile phones are happy. But mobile phone service operators have mixed opinions. The One Seg is a free service as far as the mobile phone operators are concerned. They only make it possible for people to see television programs on the mobile phones but they do not get any profit. Moreover, the more the mobile phones are used to utilize the One Seg service for television viewing, the less they are used for communications. This would result in reduced revenue for the operators.
It is required that the One Seg broadcasting service provide the clients with the same television programs as those telecast on the digital terrestrial broadcasting networks with commercials intact until 2008. The production of programs targeted specifically at the viewers through mobile phones must not thus start until after 2008. For the time being, advertisement agents say that they want to conduct surveys to find out how many people would be viewing what kinds of programs under what circumstances. They also want to make it possible to find out the viewing rates of programs on the One Seg broadcasting service.
The majority of more than 10 million mobile phones now in use in Japan are said to be replaced with those applicable to receiving the One Seg broadcasting by the time the Peking Olympic Games start in 2008. An executive of a private broadcasting company is hoping that the One Seg broadcasting will turn to a major service as a media that will be utilized for viewing at the time when it would be difficult for people to view on ordinary television sets.
But whether or not the One Seg broadcasting will turn to a big business seems to depend on providing attractive programs to view on mobile phones and applicable mobile phones at reasonable prices.
