Call it the mobile video generation.
Television is coming to U.S. cell phones, and when it does, the programs are sure to be short, flashy and laser-targeted at young adults.
MTV is very excited about the prospects. ``MTV's all about short-form video,'' said Greg Clayman, vice president of wireless strategy at MTV Networks.
TV on mobile phones is at least two years from reaching a mass U.S. audience, analysts say, but the technology already has a significant presence in Europe and Asia. A report from market researchers Strategy Analytics estimated that by 2008, more than 150 million people worldwide will be watching video on their mobile phones, generating about $4.7 billion in annual revenue for the tech industry.
In the same way that high-speed Internet access blasted open the range of media that could be downloaded onto a home computer, technological advances in mobile phones and networks have made music, radio and video on a mobile phone a reality. And young people are at the heart of this new reality, industry watchers say.
Consumers ages 18 to 24 are ``twice as likely to want video on mobile phones and twice as likely to be willing to pay for it,'' said Nicholas Lehman, senior vice president of MTV Networks' digital media division.
Why? For one thing, young people are more amenable to the idea of watching television on small screens.
``They've grown up with Nintendo GameBoys and are used to that, whereas for Baby Boomers, it just won't cut it,'' said Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin.
Prices will fall
And because prices on video-enabled phones are expected to fall over the next couple of years to the under-$100 level, industry experts are counting on young people being able to buy them.
Right now, television content is already available on certain models of cell phones, for subscription fees of $6 to about $15 a month on top of the cost of a customer's regular plan.
Verizon customers who buy the cellular provider's VCast phones -- which run on Verizon's high-speed network known as EV-DO -- can watch movie trailers, television clips of shows like ``Rock Star: INXS,'' as well short news programs from channels such as CNN.
Services such as Berkeley's MobiTV allow Sprint and Cingular customers to view streaming live broadcasts of some of their favorite TV shows.
Sherman Oaks-based GoTV offers Sprint customers on-demand popular television program clips, and also creates its own programs aimed at rabid sports fans, hip-hop music enthusiasts and Hollywood gossip lovers, to name a few.
The target audience is also young because ``they're the ones that consume the stuff more voraciously'' than older groups, said David Bluhm, GoTV's CEO.
Analysts say most wireless carriers have thus far offered these services to customers for a subscription fee, but no one really knows yet how much consumers are willing to pay for TV on their phones.
``As these new video capabilities roll out, the pricing will be figured out by the consumer,'' said analyst Neil Strother of the NPD Group, a market research firm. ``Carriers will try to get as much as they can,but they also know they have to make it affordable.''
Companies in this arena are also trying to figure out just what people will want to watch. But they do know that mobile TV watchers will check out shows under far different circumstances than home TV viewers.
``It's basically a way to kill time -- for students with flexible time schedules or while on mass transit,'' Strother said. ``Most of the consumption will be short.''
MTV's Lehman said that comedy is already very popular on mobile phones. Clips of the channel's stunt show ``Jackass'' are ``the kinds of things that make people crowd around phones,'' he said.
Another hot item
``The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,'' put on by MTV property Comedy Central, is also a hot item, Lehman said.
Bluhm, of GoTV, said broadcasters don't seem to be too worried that their regular TV audience will be lured away to mobile TV shows. In fact, broadcasters believe it's a valuable tool to keep their audience fascinated by their shows. To do this, they plan to offer only-on-mobile shows that resemble DVD extras.
One example, Lehman said, is a behind-the-scenes featurette called ``Laguna Beach: The After Show.''
``This really is the first year of mobile video,'' Lehman said. ``Right now, not a big audience is out there. But the good news is the base is growing. And interest is growing.''
Contact Jessie Seyfer at jseyfer@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5425.
