Mobile television provider MobiTV claims 7 million subscribers

MobiTV today claimed that more than seven million people are subscribed to its mobile television and video-on-demand service. It claims part of this success is due to a special offer worked out between the iPhone App Store and CBS Sports during the March Madness season.

MobiTV claims to be available on 350+ handsets and 20 carriers worldwide.

From the release:

“We are clearly seeing an increase in mobile television consumption,” said Charlie Nooney, Chairman and CEO, MobiTV. “With the addition of two million new subscribers in less than six months, MobiTV continues to expand its lead in the mobile media market by providing new, personal, relevant and immediate content to our viewers. We are about to hit the tipping point for mobile media, one that will move it from a novelty to the mainstream.”

“Our March Madness application further validates consumer demand for our groundbreaking TV experiences on mobile devices,” said Paul Scanlan, president and co-founder of MobiTV. “We are poised to continue capitalizing on this demand with an expansive offering of compelling, entertaining TV for mobile devices.”

What we think?

Yeah… subscribers doesn’t equal regular users, unfortunately. I wonder how many of those subscribers come back on a regular basis? MobiTV is one of the best mobile TV service out there at the moment, but the actual medium is hampered badly by the deficiencies of the mobile device. The screen is too small, the networks are too slow (at the moment) and the data costs are too high (at the moment). Some of these things are starting to change, but mobile TV has yet to really get it’s head.