Europeans’ interest in watching mobile television is tiny, a new study shows. Mobile operators hope that mobile TV could encourage users to spend an extra E5 to 10 a month, compensating for declining revenues from voice calls, but mobile television and video downloads ranked close to the bottom of consumer interest in a Gartner study in Europe.

Only about 5 per cent of Europeans expressed interest in watching television or video on their cellphones in the next 12 months, the study said. At the same time some 20 per cent of Asians said they would watch TV on their phone screens.

“I think the main reason is the compromise you are making on the device you need to carry to watch TV – either too big if you want a nice experience or too small and you do not have a good experience,” said Carolina Milanesi, a Gartner analyst. Also lack of consensus on business models, variety of different technologies and shortage of airwaves has been hampering takeup of mobile TV.

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