Lack Of Mobile DRM To Cost 3.5B Euros

The lack of an effective mobile digtial rights management (DRM) solution will cost Europe 3.5 billion euros this year according to Frost and Sullivan. This is over half the estimated annual turnover of the industry.
According to F&S around 80% of mobile phone content has been hacked or downloaded on to mobile phones through various ways (bluetooth, sideloading etc). Using messaging services has problems too, including people “temporarily switching off the network so as not to be billed”. Combined, F&S thinks these activities will cost the mobile entertainment industry around 2.7 billion euros this year. Another 800 million euros “is missed due to the lack of widespread interoperability for content across PCs, mobiles and MP3 players”.
As a result, “The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) today called on the industry to end revenue leakage and protect content rights by delivering an open and interoperable mDRM solution based on a clear open standard.”
Another F&S Report predicts that the current debacle surrounding the OMA mobile DRM standard will cause the market to fragment and carriers to take a short-term approach to DRM. Still, “Frost & Sullivan reveals that application revenues from DRM-protected premium content on Tier-I U.S. mobile operators in this industry are likely to reach $2251.0 million in 2010.”