MUMBAI: South Korea expects to have 21 million users of mobile TV by 2012, based mostly on free-to-air terrestrial DMB, followed by a slowly growing base of satellite DMB users.

TU Media chief executive Young-kil Suh said, "That's the government's estimate, but we think this is a very conservative estimate now." TU Media is the sole provider of satellite DMB services in South Korea.

"There are 2.5 million users of mobile TV in South Korea today. TU started its service in May 2005, and will have 1 million users by the end of 2006. It expects to hit 2.2 million users by the end of 2007, at which point it expects to break even," added Suh.

TU believes it can hit 6.6 million users by 2010 and generate $1.1 billion in revenue. That breaks down to about $14 per month in average revenue per user.

Research firm Parks Associates recently estimated the United States would have more than 15 million users of mobile TV by 2010, generating $1.6 billion in revenue.