Personal TV: A Qualitative Study of Mobile TV Users

This paper describes a qualitative user study of mobile phone TV usage undertaken during September 2005 and centered on the real world Mobile TV usage of paying subscribers of live Mobile TV service in Seoul, South Korea. The study identified four primary use cases: at home; during the evening commute (both likely to be significantly culturally dependent); macro-breaks; and secret use. Barriers to use include: battery life; screen size; lack of compelling content; poor coverage and design implications are discussed. The study suggests that if the current barriers to use can be overcome Mobile TV is a viable competitor to existing forms of entertainment and media consumption. Actual usage suggests that Personal TV is a more accurate description for this kind of service than Mobile TV.