World: Insider's View - US.

While the television on mobiles debate continues, Ramona Liberoff argues it is a case of when and how, not if.

After years of hype, TV has landed on US mobile phones. Verizon VCast, launched in February, now has 10,000 subscribers, while MobiTV, which offers services through Cingular and Sprint, claims 300,000. Small numbers in a country of 110 million mobile users, but this is just the beginning.

Mobile TV in the US looks likely to take off just as it has in Asia, with technology catching up with latent demand for the 'on-the-go TV fix'.

Content includes news, sport and weather, plus 'mobisodes' of shows and customer-generated content such as mobile blogs. The Motorola-sponsored short film Street Series was shot entirely on camera phones.

So what does this mean for advertisers and what part should mobile TV play in media plans?

The big question is the audience and, while early impressions can be misleading, there does appear to be an existing appetite for mobile TV, with 18 per cent of the US's mobile population claiming they plan to start watching TV on their phones in the next six months, or intend to buy a phone with video capability. Typically, these early adopters tend to be young and affluent (39 per cent of the 16 to 24 age range), but are less male-dominated than might be expected: 22 per cent of males, versus 14 per cent of females, according to Advanis Mobile Metrics.

Next comes the issues of drivers or barriers that will encourage or deter mobile TV adoption. Will content, as broadcasters such as ESPN hope, persuade users to subscribe? Or will new technology standards or more advanced handsets create an audience? The ...