Motorola is pointing to trends in social media and mobile viewing that have to be watched, writes Julian Clover.
Motorola’s third annual Engagement Barometer shows a steady trend towards social media, the phenomena that ensures people play with their mobiles on the train rather than speak to the person next to them, extends to the sofa.
It is also clear that the idea that we might look at our Facebook accounts on the big screen is as daft as checking the bank balance.
But it is the regional differences in the Motorola-sponsored survey that make for the most interesting reading. 56% of German respondents are interested in social media in 2011, compared to the 26% in 2010. This however is behind the global average that has moved up from 46% to 73%.
Sweden has also seen an increase in social media; 60% in 2011 compared to 27% in 2010. But Sweden has also seen a rise to 66% of Swedish respondents watch scheduled TV in 2011 compared 52% in 2010.
In 2011 scheduled TV once again means live TV as the big global brands such as The X Factor, Dancing with the Stars and The Voice dominate primetime television. Yet it is those very programmes that are encouraging the use of social media in the first place.
Some programmes actively ask the public to participate over social media – the BBC’s political show Question Time entertaining says responses are available on Ceefax – but shows like Strictly Come Dancing don’t even offer a hashtag. Those on Twitter have no need to do so.
The survey’s other interesting revelation is the increasing use of mobile TV. There is a new definition here as DVB-H and other broadcast services are no longer on the horizon. Instead what we have is the ability to view catch-up TV services delivered from the cloud or perhaps more practically downloaded previously.
41% of Russian respondents are already watching TV on their smartphone, tablet PC or laptop when away from home, this is 4% more compared to the global average of 37%.
In Sweden 43% of Swedish respondents watch 100% of their TV via the television set, compared to the global average of 31%. The survey says 30% of Swedish respondents are already watching TV on their smartphone, tablet PC or laptop, 7% less than the global average of 37 % (Germany is the lowest at 19%)
Pay-TV has to move quickly to ensure that its services are at least available to be transported outside of the home, even if the rights holders won’t allow for carriage of live services on the move. Apple has first mover advantage here and the connection between tablets and iTunes can already be described as a Granny-friendly solution.
