By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

The mobile television industry has an audience of nearly 26 million, but has yet to figure out a way to turn the massive viewership into money.

And some industry watchers claim that mobile television, dubbed as digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) here, will eventually meet its fate as an ``in-betweener,'' rendered irrelevant by smartphones and their wealth of Internet and multimedia features, and also by interactive broadband television services that may go mobile.

With DMB functions becoming standard on mobile phones and other digital devices, the country's number of mobile television viewers continues to grow.

More than 23.86 million devices equipped with land-based DMB reception, including phones, car navigation devices and other products, were sold through the third quarter of last year, according to industry figures.

The subscribers for the satellite-based DMB, a pay-television service provided by TU Media, a unit of SK Telecom, accumulated to 2.04 million during the period.

The hourly viewer ratings of the DMB broadcasts average around 1 percent, meaning that around 250,000 people are simultaneously watching mobile television every hour, according to the Terrestrial DMB Special Committee, an industry lobby of the country's land-based DMB operators.

However, despite the immense number of people squinting at tiny screens on streets and morning commuter trains, it would be awkward to crown mobile television as a Korean success story.

The advertisement-supported model of land-based DMB, which are provided to viewers for free, appears to be a complete failure.

The country's six land-based DMB operators, which include national television networks KBS, MBC and SBS, and also YTN, U1 Media and Korea DMB, combined for less than 40 billion won in revenue for 2008 and their numbers for last year aren't expected to be much prettier.

Although the national television stations fared better, the smaller three DMB operators have each posted losses of around 3 billion won or more through the third quarter of last year, according to the committee.

It's not that the fee-based DMB model is enabling TU Media to print money either, as the company has yet to see profit since starting the satellite services in 2006.

``The increasing use of smartphones and the expected emergence of mobile Internet protocol television (IPTV) will combine for a negative environment for the land-based DMB operators. With their weak financial structures and lack of business models, the broadcasters can't even think about additional investment or creating new services,'' said an official from the committee.

Desperate to generate a new buzz, the land-based DMB operators are lining up behind ``DMB 2.0,'' an interactive television service based on mobile Internet networks, enabling viewers to surf a range of data-based services such as e-commerce, stock updates and personal video recordings (PVR).

But there are mixed predictions on whether the new technology will sizzle or fizzle.

Although the operators started beaming their first DMB 2.0 signals in December, it won't be until later this year that mobile television viewers will get a taste of the interactive services, as the industry has yet to have a handset or mobile device to support the new technology.

And it remains to be seen whether DMB 2.0 has a firm position, with telecommunications giants like KT considering extending their interactive IPTV services to the mobile platform.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr