“Everyone, from operators to news agencies, are launching mobile TV services,” says Henrik Eklund, head of Kamera. “There is a lot more competition now than a year ago, but not that many can handle what we do.”

Kamera produces news for operators and media companies around the world. With journalists and editors in Cairo, Singapore and soon South America, the company takes satellite feeds from Associated Press and other news providers, 24 hours a day, digitalizes it and produces short videos for mobile and online output.

We handle about 40,000 stories a year, everything from a train crash to the latest gossip from Hollywood,” Eklund says.

Of all the mobile TV content currently on the market, Eklund thinks time-sensitive content – that is news, sports and entertainment – will be the “strongest part moving forward.” He also believes that newspapers, and especially the tabloids, will be better suited to produce this type of content than broadcasters. “Broadcasters think in terms of prime-time programming, and that’s not how people will consume on their mobiles,” he says. “The winners will be the tabloids, such as The Sun in the UK and Expressen in Sweden, that are used to talking to their readers in an entertaining way without taking up too much of their time.”

Which type of content will be the big winner in the future depends on who you speak to. Eddie Abrams, director of Strategy and Development at YooMedia, thinks the future of mobile TV content is on-demand services, the kind of services that let mobile users personalize the content they want to watch.

One of the biggest on-demand services YooMedia produces is Dateline, a dating service launched in partnership with 3 and Vodafone. The service, which won the prize for the best service at the first Mobile TV Awards last December, lets the user record a video dating advert with a 3G phone, as well as screening other users’ adverts and leaving video messages for them.

Abrams says the reason why Dateline has become a success is because it puts users in control of the content. “Compare it to TV dating channels where you have to watch 15 minutes of video to find the 30-second segment that fits you; our service tailors videos to your profile and allows you to access them wherever and whenever you want.”

Abrams believes the demand for on-demand services will grow. “In general, we’ll see more and more users submitting mobile TV content,” he says. “I also think you’ll see these services appearing across multiple platforms – they will not only be accessible on your 3G phone but also on your TV and computer.”

For this reason, Abrams and his team at YooMedia have developed a system called 4GTV, which allows users to access on-demand content on all three communications platforms – TV, mobile and web. “It will allow you to personalize your content, search for content that interests you and decide when you want to watch the content you have chosen,” Abrams says.

Although Abrams and Eklund have different views on what the big content winner will be, they both believe in the future of mobile TV.

“I absolutely think that mobile TV has a future,” says Eklund, adding that it might take some time before it takes off because of the slow uptake of 3G. Despite this, Eklund says his company does not have a problem with sales. “In South Africa, we are the most downloaded service,” he says, adding that Kamera has daily deliveries of news video to around 20 operators on five continents in five languages.

Abrams believes in mobile TV because it is a consumer-driven service. “Mobile TV is not dependant on whether an operator or TV station thinks it is a good idea,” he says. “People on the ground are just doing it – they are putting their own video blogs and other self-made content onto their mobiles. The companies that will be successful are those that tap into those trends and commercialize them.”

Torunn Hansen-Tangen