London – 7th April 2014 – A new report by Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL), the specialists in worldwide telecommunications pricing research, finds that more MNOs are now partnering with 3rd party content providers – including OTT specialists – than ever before.
The report, entitled “2014 Pricing Strategies for Mobile Content Services” analyses content pricing from 90 MNOs in 51 countries across the world. It examines five types of mobile content – including mobile music, mobile social media, mobile gaming, mobile TV & mobile cinema services – offered by MNOs around the world.
MNOs are offering content services using 3rd party partners. For mobile music, many MNOs are partnering with Spotify and Deezer music streaming services, but pricing varies extensively, ranging from USD 1.27 per month (Movistar Argentina) up to USD 14.55 per month (Telia Denmark). Rates vary mainly due to country factors, with MNOs in Argentina, Brazil & Malaysia having the lowest average rates and MNOs in Denmark, France & the UK having the highest average rate.
And selected MNOs are integrating music streaming content or social media into their premium Smartphone packages as a differentiator – on top of the standard bundles of calls, SMS & mobile data. For example, Movistar Mexico provides the GigaMove Plan, which offers bundles of calls, SMS & mobile data plus Spotify Premium with unlimited access to social networking sites (including Twitter, Facebook & WhatsApp) from USD 23 per month.
MNOs – such as 3 (Hong Kong), Reliance (India), Uninor (India) & SingTel (Singapore) - are also partnering with social media provider WhatsApp, offering messaging services for a monthly fee. Some MNOs provide a mix of social media services as part of a stand-alone package – with Turkcell for example offering unlimited Twitter & Facebook access for USD 3.3 per month.
Mobile gaming services – and other content services – are provided via the MNOs portal, with providers in Russia and China using their own mobile web portal to offer access to 3rd party content. China Mobile for example, offers content via its Mobile Market (MM) portal with games costing from USD 0.10 up to USD 1 each to download. In the report survey the mobile Gaming Packs are offered as a range of pricing from USD 5.35 per month (StarHub Singapore) up to USD 13.21 per month (Vodafone Fiji).
Mobile TV services are also being offered by MNOs all over the world, with some markets offering short-term daily mobile TV packs at a low rental cost - with MegaFon (Russia) for example - charging USD 0.28 per day for mobile TV. Increasingly, MNOs with a fixed line TV service are adding a mobile TV component as a “on the Go” service usually at an incremental cost.
A few MNOs – including Orange – offer mobile cinema services - with discounts for cinema visits as a form of loyalty scheme. But there are relatively few mobile movie services being offered by MNOs.
Overall, MNOs are using content services as a means of differentiating a bundle of calls, SMS and mobile data by protecting a price point with added value services. With some exceptions, the MNO is no longer developing their own content services but are partnering with 3rd party content providers. But content is being used primarily to protect an existing price point.
Also the MNO is developing content access (such as Mobile TV) to be downloaded as an App from the Google Play and Apple App Store, and is increasingly resembling the OTT provider in their approach to the market.
About the TCL 2014 Pricing Strategies for Mobile Content Services report – The report includes examples of mobile content pricing from 90 MNOs in 52 countries around the world. It includes a survey of pricing for mobile Music, mobile Social Media, mobile Gaming, mobile TV & mobile cinema offered by MNOs worldwide. The report examines the main trends and new content services introduced in the main geographical regions using the unique TCL global pricing database. The TCL 2014 Pricing Strategies for Mobile Content Services report costs GBP 1,595 for a single user licence. Further information about the report is to be found on the TCL website
About TCL – Tariff Consultancy Ltd (TCL) is a London-based international telecoms research and consultancy company and has created a unique mobile tariff database, which it uses to develop a range of worldwide subscription Tariff Tracker services and reports (including Smartphone, LTE and Roaming services).