Acceptable Channel Switching Delays for Mobile TV

This paper presents a user study investigating the acceptability of channel switching delays on mobile television systems. The authors first review the previous work in the area, then propose a study design and present results from its implementation, focusing on the overall acceptability threshold as well as three potential effect factors: the transition type, the test environment and the audiovisual content. The results show that delays longer than 5.7 seconds annoyed test participants, and that the transition type had a significant impact on the rating of channel switching delays. However, neither the test environment nor the audiovisual content influenced the ratings significantly. Finally, a discussion of these results and directions for future research are proposed.