Telefonica is to delay the worldwide launch of its mobile TV service citing difficulties with the service format and customer understanding of the value proposition - basically the customers don't see the point.

Speaking at ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong, Jose Maria Alvarez-Palette, Telefonica's executive president of the carrier's Latin American business said it would "refrain from launching" the service, as reported by Telecom TV.

"If you listen to the engineers, technically it's working, so we can have full deployment of it all over the world immediately, but if we listen to customers, they do not understand the value proposition."

Customers have, in general, been pretty ambivalent about watching TV on the move. The iPod remains a music-centric device despite the support for, and availability of, video content. Orange reported average viewing times are around two and a half minutes a day for their video service, and other research would seem to back up the idea that even where viewers do want mobile TV they want it in short, sharp, bites, and aren't perpared to pay a lot for it. ®