The eccentric career of mobile television

Abstract

The broadcast of television to mobile phones was an idea that seized public imagination in the early 2000s. This article looks at the roll-out of this mobile television, which was initially thought to be integral to the achievement of digital television across new platforms. This first phase of mobile television attracted pockets of adherents and also generated important innovations in audio-visual production and cultures of use. However, it fell short of becoming the promised 'fourth screen'. What transpired was a second, 'unofficial', stage of mobile television, formed at the intersection of user cultures of mobile media and Internet technologies. In this sense, I argue that we are seeing a second coming of mobile television – centring on these mobile, portable, interactive forms of audio-visual culture – that has much to tell us about the realities of digital television today.