Mobile TV in everyday life contexts:Individual entertainment or shared experiences?

TV has often been regarded primarily as a traditional family medium, because it is mainly watched at home and used as a basis for interaction with others. Now that the mobile phone, which people seem to experience as a personal communication device, has developed functionalities peculiar to mass media, including a TV feature, it is interesting to know how these functionalities will be used throughout the day and in different everyday life contexts. Will mobile TV used mostly on the go or as an additional media at home? Will it become as a highly individualized media format or will the watching experience typically be shared with others? This paper examines the users' mobile TV choices in different everyday life contexts. The data is based on ongoing empirical research in Finland in 2006. The tested mobile TV services included both news and entertainment contents, and were tested in 3G and DVB-H networks