MAM
Video portal important hook for mobile users: Study
MUMBAI: Mobile companies across the globe looking at ways to provide value added services to customers would do well to consider the video portal.
Research indicates that this is one of the tools that US and European consumers would choose to simplify and enrich their mobile lives.
The research was conducted on behalf of Openwave Systems by the Teleconomy Group in Europe and by TNS in the US. The earlier mentioned video portal is a single, simple interface through which to personalised video messaging, downloads and subscription content. This spells good news for television and video content providers looking for new revenue streams.
The research is an in-depth investigation into consumer perceptions of new mobile services across the US and Europe. The research has also found that the success of 3G will be driven by better control of the user experience.
Control and simplicity are important: With the proliferation of new forms of mobile messaging, including MMS,
mobile email and Instant Messaging, and new mobile content with the launch of 3G services, the study found that most users are attracted to simple tools that would help them better control their mobile lives.
The study, involving 40 situational and focus group interviews, shows that functions to help simplify and order mobile information are crucial to delivering a better user experience of mobile services of all types. The study was undertaken in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Madrid, Chicago, Rome and Berlin across three demographic groups – teens, young adults and professionals.
The research has also demonstrated the importance of relevant and accessible content to the delivery of better mobile user experiences. Survey participants saw most relevance in services that supported personalised content closely fitting their lifestyles and values, and were prepared to pay a premium for such services. While participants were attracted to personalised and relevant content, however, most have found it hard to know when new content is available to them, or how to access this content easily.
Teleconomy Group chairman Professor Michael K Hulme says, “This study shows that tomorrow’s killer applications are all about control. While advanced mobile content and services have undoubted consumer appeal, they require simple control structures that allow users to manage them effectively. It is clear that there’s little point bombarding users with
advanced forms of content if they can’t make sense of it and order it.”
Another tool that hooks users to the mobile is the video voicemail. This service allows users to create and manage personalised video messages, in the same way they would using
conventional voicemail.
Differences between different demographic and geographical groups:
– London was the most receptive European market for all of the concepts tested
– US participants were the most attracted to Instant Messaging and Push-to-Talk services
– On the flip side Germans were the most cynical about new services
– Professionals who have to ‘sectionalise’ their lives (i.e. separate their work, home and leisure time) expressed the greatest need for mobile organisational tools
– The 16-18 year old group – those having grown up in a world of mobile phones – found new services less of a conceptual leap than others.
Teleconomy is a research based consultancy specialising in understanding consumer and organisational behaviours and how relationships are built and sustained.
MAM
AI could unlock billions for India’s $30 billion media industry, says JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar
JioStar vice-chairman urges industry to seize once-in-a-generation AI moment to turn India into the world’s creative capital
DELHI: India’s media industry stands at a historic inflection point. Artificial intelligence, long discussed as a technological disruptor, could now become the lever that propels the country from a domestic content giant to a global creative powerhouse.
Delivering the keynote at the IndiaAI Impact Summit, Uday Shankar argued that AI offers India a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead, not follow, in global media and entertainment.
Shankar credited the prime minister’s vision for centring India’s growth agenda around AI and described the summit as overdue . Drawing on three decades in media, he traced the industry’s transformation from the arrival of the first newsroom computers to the launch of India’s earliest digital platforms, each wave of technology reshaping speed, scale and audience engagement.
The numbers tell a story of staggering growth. In just 25 years, India’s media and entertainment sector has expanded from a few billion dollars to become the world’s fifth-largest market, contributing more than $30bn to the economy. Television households have jumped from about 70m to over 210m, with more than 800m video consumers today.
Yet global influence remains elusive. While South Korea exported Squid Game and Parasite to worldwide acclaim, and Puerto Rico produced the most-streamed artist on the planet, India has struggled to consistently break through beyond its domestic and diaspora audiences .
The constraints are structural. Hollywood studio productions command budgets of $65m to $100m, with tentpoles running as high as $300m. The average Indian film operates on $3m to $5m . A marquee US television episode can cost $20m to $30m; an Indian serial is typically produced for Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per episode, roughly $10,000. The capital gap, Shankar argued, has narrowed ambition and limited global competitiveness.
AI, he said, changes the equation by rewiring the three pillars of the industry: content, consumer and commerce.
On content, AI-powered production is collapsing infrastructure costs and accelerating timelines. At JioStar, the company recently produced Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, a 100-episode live-action series delivered three to five times faster than a traditional production pipeline. The implication is stark. The remaining constraint is no longer capital, but imagination.
On consumers, AI enables conversational discovery, interactive storytelling and regionalisation that goes beyond simple dubbing to reflect India’s linguistic texture. On commerce, it unlocks granular segmentation and dynamic pricing, moving beyond the blunt instruments of subscription and advertising that have defined the industry for a century.
The prize is vast. The global media market, currently worth nearly $3trn, is projected to reach $3.5trn by 2029. India’s share remains under 2 per cent. Even a shift to 5 per cent would generate tens of billions of dollars in additional value.
But Shankar cautioned that opportunity does not guarantee outcome. He called for three commitments: self-disruption before external disruption, aggressive skilling to create AI-native creative hybrids, and policy frameworks that accelerate rather than constrain innovation.
Hollywood’s defensive posture towards AI, he suggested, offers India a rare window to design the business models and regulatory frameworks that could set global precedents. The shift in advantage, he argued, favours nations with deep cultural reservoirs and massive audiences.
The question is no longer whether India can lead in the AI age of media, he concluded, but whether it will move fast enough to claim that position.
The stories were always here. Now the technology has caught up.
