With the declining popularity of cable and mobile packages, there is a significant opportunity for pay-per-view. Many brands, such as ESPN, NBA and WWE have begun streaming on mobile devices, but others worry about mobile streaming due to slow growth rate of mobile payments.
Marketers are still not convinced about pay-per-view on mobile because it has experienced a significantly slower growth rate than desktop pay-per-view. Additionally, consumers view mobile screens as too small and less secure for a viewing experience.
Mobile also allows for pay-per-view events to go global, because digital efforts are instantly worldwide. Once content is published to the Internet, it is immediately accessible to consumers all over the world.
Sastry Rachakonda, the CEO of New York digital marketing agency iQuanti says that “mobile pay per view gives providers an opportunity to dramatically improve footprint, not just because of ubiquity of mobile devices but because of their omnipresence. People do not have to be at home in front of their televisions to get pay-per-view, which dramatically increases the opportunity. The other opportunity is globalization. For example, Chinese soccer fans would be able to view the English Premier League on their mobiles, on a pay-per-view mode, at $0.95 per match. Given the global popularity of LeBron James, we can see that as a huge opportunity for the NBA.”
