At 11:28 AM 9/26/02 +0900, you wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>Having talked with many Japanese TV and radio broadcasters about their
>integration of mobile Internet services and TV/radio programs I assumed
>that Japan was light-years ahead of the rest of the world. But a report on
>a recent seminar in amsterdam called "SMS meets TV" suggests otherwise
>(http://www.europemedia.net/showfeature.asp?ArticleID=12767). European TV
>stations are using SMS to offer chat services, do surveys, promote
>interactive TV, and increase viewer ratings. Most Japanese TV stations (as
>far as I know) are still moving very slowly to offer surveys due to
>concerns about overloading their systems. On a wider note, this is just one
>more example of how the success of Japan's mobile Internet has little to do
>with culture; in fact the amounts of money that europeans pay to download
>ringing tones, screen savers, and now participate in TV station-sponsored
>services suggests that europeans may be more interested than japanese in
>these services. it is probably just a matter of time before similar things
>appear in the US as SMS services continue to diffuse there.
Hi Jeff,
I've enjoyed reading your comments here. I'm wondering, though, if we can
really
use the success or failure of iTV or even iTV/SMS convergence in Japan or
Europe
to then characterize the success of the mobile internet Japan as being
culturally
bound/unbound.
1) iTV Acceptance:
In general, TV viewing is thought of as a "lean-back" experience, while
iTV is characterized as a "lean-forward" experience. How prevalent is iTV
in Japan and how do Japanese accept the idea of interacting with a program?
2) Usability/integration Factors:
How usable/integrated is iTV and the messaging in Japan (availability of
messaging substitutes such email, etc.) and does Japanese culture
necessitate an integrated iTV messaging solution rather than using a separate
mobile phone while viewing a program?
3) Prevalence of iTV content/compelling iTV content:
How prevalent is iTV content in Japan and how compelling is it? If there aren't
many shows or any compelling content, we wouldn't expect a lot of activity
on the part of Japanese.
4) iTV, in and of itself, is not mobile. If there are culture factors/utility
that drive the Japanese moblile internet adoption (microqueues, human
factor issues, integration, form factors, status, etc. ), then they may
be lacking in iTV and if interest in iTV in general is lacking, we wouldn't
expect Japanese active participation (lean forward) with the iTV programming.
By the way, I forgot to mention I enjoyed your interview on NPR in San
Francisco
a few months back (it may have actually been a BBC news feed on NPR).
James Santagata
A U D I E N C E T R A X
Monetize your Media
http://www.audiencetrax.com
Received on Tue Oct 1 06:49:53 2002