Chris Minas, founder of Nimbletank.

There is no doubt about it; mobile is changing the face of broadcast as we know it. Broadcast content is moving from ‘on demand’ to ‘on-the-go’ and it’s all being helmed by mobile. Case in point is Shazam, which has just launched its TV service. However, this service is not a simple add-on to the voice and data, but comes with totally new dimensions that challenge the present markets. With the number of mobile-connected devices due to exceed the number of people on earth by 2015, broadcasters must sit up and prepare for the future in mobile.

Mobile is exposing the different types of content that people can engage with and new apps and devices are adding greater capabilities in how broadcast content can be accessed. In other words, the availability of broadcast content is changing, where channel owners are looking for diverse distribution platforms. It’s the content owners being given more leverage but it is gathered and owned by mobile. Mobile is quite simply breaking down those barriers.

Take mobile TV, which is not yet a clearly defined media, with ambiguous connotations. It could altogether replace traditional television where users lack access to a television set, but mostly it will complement traditional TV. It will be part of a multimedia device, which emphasises interactivity and enables users to produce and personalise content.

 And it’s not just Shazam taking mobile broadcast into its own hands. This summer the Dyle TV app was born in the US, the brainchild of Mobile Content Venture, a conglomerate made up of about a dozen of the world’s biggest broadcasting groups, including Fox, NBC and Telemundo. It draws signals from local participating TV markets and delivers the transmissions straight to your mobile device. Far from flawless, Dyle TV’s coverage map is still very spotty and it needs to bring more channels more flexibly to succeed. But this is only the beginning.

Mobile broadcast is a new service that has the potential to change the present market for mobile services and marketers. Just look at the development of new devices reflecting this. The Samsung Galaxy Beam, which launched in July, is packed with a 15 lumens projector to allow you to watch anything on any surface you see fit.

There is no doubt about it; broadcast on mobile is about to grow and the channel owners and content owners alike are facing the exciting challenge of racing to be first in tapping into this to gain the next generation of viewers. However, the question does not lie in the technology capability or availability any longer but in how this new-found mobile broadcast ecosystem is managed.