CONNECTED VISION
Little sign of 5G Broadcast at MWC
The recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona attracted 109,000 attendees and more than 2,900 exhibitors, sponsors, and partners. Yet there was relatively little news about 5G Broadcast, a multicast technology to enable the efficient transmission of television and other broadcast media from either high-power tall towers or mobile network masts to any number of receivers.
5G Broadcast has yet to capture the imagination of broadcasters and has yet to develop a business model to excite telecommunications network providers or device manufacturers.
Rohde & Schwarz had a live demo of 5G Broadcast, with the first available off-the-shelf mobile devices from Motorola Mobillity, the Motorola Razr 50 ultra, featuring minor software modifications to support 5GB.
5G Broadcast was showcased at the Olympic Games in France last year, with TDF delivering live services in Paris, Nantes, and Bordeaux to 250 test users with custom handsets from Xiaomi.
The 5G Broadcast Strategic Task Force is an initiative involving TDF and other partners to drive the development of a joint commercial roadmap across six European markets representing more than 270 million people.
We have been hearing about the potential of 5G Broadcast for many years, but it has yet to gain much traction. Irrespective of the ability to transmit signals, consumer adoption will be dependent upon the availability of compelling services and widespread support in devices.
In theory, DVB-I can be used as a service layer to announce the availability of 5G Broadcast services to enable them to be discovered by devices and displays. In practice, DVB-I can also be used to support unicast delivery to existing mobile phones.
There appears to be relatively little appetite from broadcasters to deliver their services over mobile networks, despite a market of over two billion 5G subscriptions worldwide, projected to reach six billion in 2030.
Broadcasters seem to be more intent on competing with other online services to offer media on demand, instead of focussing on their unique capability to reach millions of people at the same time.
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ITVX expected to break even in 2025
ITV, the leading commercial broadcaster in the United Kingdom, says that by the end of 2025 it will have recouped the cumulative investment in its online video platform ITVX, much earlier than it anticipated. Total online revenue was £0.56 billion in 2024, out of total group revenue of £4.14 billion.
Reporting results for 2024, ITV said that online viewing was up by 12% to 1.69 billion hours and monthly active users were up by 14% at 14.3 million. Subscribers to its online services were down 23% to 1.0 million, with subscription revenue of just £48 million, as ITV prioritises its advertiser funded proposition. Online revenue was up 12% to £556 million.
Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of ITV, described ITVX as the fastest growing streaming platform in the United Kingdom over the last two years.
Since the launch of ITVX at the end of 2021, the number of online viewing hours across ITV has grown by over 60% and online revenue has grown accordingly.
During 2024, the company said that in-year incremental digital revenues exceeded incremental ITVX costs, two years earlier than expected. By the end of 2025, ITV expects to have recouped the cumulative incremental investment in ITVX.
Online ‘digital’ advertising revenue now represents over a quarter of total advertising revenue, but over half of group revenue comes from programme production. ITV Studios produces programmes that are shown on Netflix and Disney, even on the BBC. It has franchises like The Voice and Love Island. Over 30% of the ITV Studios revenues comes from the online video market.
Total group revenue was down 3% at £4.14 billion. Statutory operating profit was £318 million, compared to £238 million the year before.
NAB calls for end of ATSC 1.0
The National Association of Broadcasters is asking the Federal Communications Commission in the United States to establish a deadline for phasing out the ATSC 1.0 broadcast standard that is being replaced by ATSC 3.0, which is promoted as NextGen TV. The proposal is to phase out ATSC 1.0 in major markets in 2028, completing the transition two years after that.
The petition from the NAB proposes full conversion of the top 55 television markets, representing about 70% of the population of the United States, by February 2028, followed by the remaining markets by February 2030.
ATSC 3.0 is already launched in markets covering about three-quarters of the country. It offers enhanced audio and video quality, with interactive services based on internet standards. About 14 million compatible sets have been sold so far.
The NAB is calling for ATSC 3.0 tuners to be required in all new television sets sold in the United States by February 2028. It says that “without decisive and immediate action, the transition risks stalling, and the realistic window for implementation could pass.”
The Consumer Technology Association describes it has an unnecessary regulatory burden that would increase costs for manufacturers and consumers. It says that fewer than 10% of homes in the United States rely on antennas for television and described it as effort to sustain a failing business model.