Mobile TV

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

mobileYouth 2006 -- It's Social, Stupid

(c) MocoNews

The
Wireless World Forum has released its 196-page mobileYouth report for 2006, with the press release trumpeting the statistic that children would spend almost $30,000 on mobile services over their lifetime, although there is a lot of interesting stuff in the report...this is some of it.

The figures (for future lifetime value of UK customers) break down as:
Aged 10 -- $27,996
Aged 15 -- $27,198
Aged 35 -- $13,368
Aged 50 -- $5,364
So someone who is 35 has a higher ARPU than a teenager, but has already spent half of what they are going to spend in their lifetime. I guess the lesson here is to get in early with the kids so they keep using your service as they grow older.
At one point the report claims that personified handsets (ie, those that have been named) are easier to market because "emotional branding associated with naming handsets makes a product range more appealing to mobileYouth than would a feature-branded handset". Rokr’s big secret to success may not have been the features but the fact that it was given a name rather than a product code.
The report decries the frenzied search for the "killer app" or "next big thing", claiming that "our energies will be inevitably exhausted by chasing trends". Instead the industry should be asking "What do mobileYouth love?" and "What role does the mobile phone play in the social universe of youth?" to produce better products and marketing (with a corresponding higher chance of success in the marketplace). So for example, mobile TV must "redefine the social, rather than
viewing, experience". And for mobile music: "Music is a good example of how the opportunity is either overlooked or misread by its stakeholders. Instead of using the mobile channel to enhance existing behavioral patterns associated with music – i.e. sharing of opinion, collective shopping with peers, the role of the DJs and artists in informing the public – the music industry seeks to maximize revenues through using the medium as a sales channel."
Another interesting statement: "The quest to fill 'niche time’ is the preserve of an industry that has yet to fully understand its own potential value." Basically, the mobile content industry is saying that its product is so crap it can only compete with boredom. However, this isn’t the case, as a survey given in the report shows:

Mobile Content Usage, Home and Away


This is especially true for kids, since they don’t have control of their home. A decade ago if mum was watching TV, dad was on the phone and someone else was using the computer there wasn’t much a kid could do about it (I read books, but I hear that isn’t common). Now they have their own mobile phones, which they can use for entertainment and to communicate with friends. When they’re away from home they’re more likely to be doing something else...
Some final statistics..."538 million youth aged 5-24 owned a mobile phone in 2006. Emerging
markets fuel growth in the mobileYouth population. Annual ownership figures are rising by just
under 100 million. In 2004, Western Europe was the largest market in terms of mobileYouth.
However, Western Europe will grow only 11% between 2004 and 2007 with South Asia, by comparison, reporting rates of 694% for the same time period. By 2007, Western Europe will rank 4th, behind China region, Latin America and South East Asia Pacific...mobileYouth will spend $130 billion on mobile services in 2006, a rise of 11% on 2005 figures. Western Europe, North America and North East Asia account for 58% (or $75 billion) of the entire global market. Youth spending on mobile is rising by an average of 11% per annum. Asia and the Rest of World combined fuel a large proportion of the global growth, with growth rates in 2006 of 16% and 20% respectively. Europe provides the slowest annual growth rate of just over 4% annually, North America with 7%."

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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Anheuser-Busch Starts In-House Content Division For Online/Mobile

In the continuing evolution of brand companies developing their own content, U.S.'s largest brewer Anheuser-Busch is launching its own in-house film and TV production division that will make comedy shorts and sitcom-type programs for online and mobile, reports AdAge. Funding will likely be drawn from its $1.56 billion marketing budget.

A-B to date has dabbled with one-offs, such as "Bud TV," an online production it promoted with a commercial during February's Super Bowl.
Earlier this summer, A-B pulled VP-Creative Development Jim Schumacher " its top in-house creative " out of the advertising department and into the new production group. A-B has also assigned Michael Gianino, senior director-branded entertainment, to a unit devoted to producing online content.

(c) MocoNews

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More details are in the article below:

King Of Beers Becomes King Of Content, Uses Super Bowl To Launch Direct-To-Consumer Channel

Some last days article, but very useful.

IN A MOVE THAT'S SURE to cause a stir at ABC, as well as the other major networks, long-time Super Bowl advertiser Anheuser-Busch will use its buy in ABC's coverage of the game on Sunday to launch its own direct-to-consumer network. Details of the strategy are still under wraps, but the new channel, code-named "The Bud Screen," will debut sometime during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XL, offering viewers the opportunity to download advertising, programming and branded entertainment content directly to their computers, iPods and other devices. The initiative is the most aggressive example yet in a growing trend of marketers utilizing broadband video downloading to bypass traditional TV outlets to deliver their content directly to consumers. Unlike previous direct-to-consumer video plays, the Anheuser-Busch deal is not a one-time, or limited test of broadband video distribution, but is the launch of a new, ongoing distribution channel that eventually is expected to be branded "Bud TV."

"This changes the whole concept of broadcasting out to consumers. Typically media companies have done that. With the Internet, we blow out that old model and enable advertisers to reach consumers directly without having the media companies sell the ad space," says Hilmi Ozguc, CEO of Maven, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company that will power the new Bud channel.

As part of the launch, Anheuser-Busch will encourage Super Bowl viewers - the largest conventional TV audience of any program of the year - to sign up for a "season's pass" to the new channel, which will periodically download content undetected on their hard drives until they are ready to use it.

Anheuser-Busch is not the first major marketer to experiment with a TV bypass model. PepsiCo ran a limited channel via Maven's network for Mountain Dew several months ago, and Massive is working on a similar concept for General Motors' Chevrolet trucks line. Major movie studios such as Disney, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures have also used it to distribute movie trailers direct-to-consumers. But Anheuser-Busch is the first to look at it as a continuous channel for distributing programming, advertising and branded entertainment by tapping into the growing appetite of the consumer download marketplace.

Maven's Ozguc says marketers have been leaping into the direct-to-consumer video market ever since Apple Computer launched its Video iPod deal with Walt Disney Co. late last year to begin distributing TV shows directly to consumers. Since then, all of he major networks have launched similar initiatives (see related CBS story in today's MediaDailyNews), as have marketers, albeit more quietly.

Others have, too, including big players in the PR industry, which see the consumer video download market as a new pipeline for distributing video news releases and other content directly to consumers, bypassing their traditional gatekeepers of TV stations and networks.

"In effect, we are creating our own digital network," says Laurence Moskowitz, president, CEO and chairman of Medialink, the largest distributor of video news releases, or so-called VNRs. This week, Medialink officially announced the creation of its own direct-to-consumer distribution channel with the release of a new VNR for General Motors' Buick division featuring golf superstar Tiger Woods. The system currently utilizes Google's and Yahoo's broadband download servers, and can automatically convert the corporate videos into any consumer format, including iPod videos.

Medialink has quietly been utilizing broadband video downloads to push corporate video content directly to consumers for months, but is going public with its plans now as part of a more ambitious program to reengineer how it distributes corporate video content. Moskowitz calls the overall effort "narrative marketing," and says that in many ways, it competes directly with conventional advertising services offered by Madison Avenue, including media planning and buying.

Moskowitz says Medialink is not yet abandoning its traditional system of distributing corporate videos as news releases to TV stations and networks, but he says that over time, the direct-to-consumer market could grow to be bigger and would give marketers more control over their messages than relying on traditional TV news department gatekeepers.

It's also a lot less expensive than the ways Madison Avenue has traditionally used to get corporate messages out. Unlike TV advertising spots, which can cost hundreds of thousands to produce and millions to buy media time for, Moskowitz says Medialink can produce high-quality, 90-second TV clips for "$20,000 to $30,000" and can do it on the fly. The cost of the media time using the direct-to-consumer method is essentially zero.

Maven's Ozguc agrees that the economics of this new marketplace are entirely different than the ones traditionally used by Madison Avenue and the major TV networks. He would not specify costs of programs like "The Bud Screen," but he says, "It's a lot less than the cost of a TV ad, but it's a more than the cost of a banner ad."

(c) Joe Mandese is Editor of MediaPost.
Thursday, Feb 2, 2006 8:32 AM ET

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Italos take to tiny TVs

By BERNHARD WARNER
c) Variety.Com

ROME -- Cellphone frenzied Italy has emerged as the fastest-growing market for DVB-H, a technology that turns cell phones into mini TV screens that's set to become the next billion-dollar industry for digital broadcasters.

Beginning later this month, Telecom Italia Mobile will air Serie A professional soccer matches on mobile handsets to lure subscribers; Vodafone Italia is trialing a similar offer to soccer-mad Italians. These two services are so new that they have yet to report subscriber numbers.

Meanwhile 3 Italia , majority owned by Hutchison Whampoa, has a jump on its bigger rivals. It purchased from Rupert Murdoch's satcaster, Sky Italia, the broadcast rights to every World Cup soccer match earlier this summer, a coup that enabled it to become the first to sign up 111,000 mobile TV subscribers.

By comparison, it took twice as long for that many of South Korea's famously tech-savvy users to sign up to TU Media's pioneering mobile TV service.

"Italy is the dominant market for mobile TV broadcast services by quite a wide margin. It's the only one in Europe where there are commercial services rolled out," says Adrian Drozd, senior analyst at research firm Datamonitor.

From June 1, 3 Italia offered three channels from pubcaster RAI, a channel with the best of Mediaset, Sky Cinema, Sky Sport, Sky TG 24 and Sky Vivo, plus self-produced channels La3 Live and La3 Sport, teen channel Boing and a music channel. Four pay options are available, from e 3 ($3.85) to $127 for six months.

Watching content on a two-inch screen may not sound like the most appealing viewing experience, but mobile operators and digital broadcasters are enticed by the enormous potential audience.

Others are closely monitoring the Italian market to see whether the tiny screen can pull in big revenues for rights holders.

Datamonitor predicts there will be 69 million subscribers worldwide to mobile TV services by 2009, generating $5.5 billion in subscription revenues.

Drozd believes it is too early to predict the value of the advertising and broadcast rights markets associated with DVB-H.

Short for Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld, DVB-H is expected to emerge as the dominant technology in Europe and North America (besting Mediaflow, DMB and Japan's ISDB-T) now that major handset makers such as Nokia are behind it, he says.

Buoyed by the early success, 3 Italia's CEO Vincenzo Novari believes DVB-H will become a TV viewing force, predicting10 million mobile TV customers in Italy by 2010.

He says mobile TV content will consist of familiar TV programming -- sports, music, news and talk shows. However, it will add an interactive component, such as SMS-voting or encouraging users to send in videos, a la YouTube, straight from the handset.

"We will offer customers mobility, Web access and TV in one service," he adds.

Novari is betting big.

His 3 Italia became Europe's first mobile operator to own a national digital TV licence after it acquired Canale 7, a mid-sized Italian TV channel, in November for $282.5 million, providing the infrastructure to reach 70% of Italy with a DVB-H signal.

The physical rollout is not the only expense. Company has set aside $64 million to develop programming and buy digital rights to programming from Sky Italia and Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset group to rebroadcast in DVB-H.

Telecom Italia Mobile also is buying digital rights from Sky Italia and Mediaset.

"We need popular programming content to compete in this market," Novari adds.

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An article which is connected to this one:

Italians Jump Ahead In the Mobile-TV Game

(c) MocoNews from Wall Street Journal article.

The Wall Street Journal has a detailed account of the Italian mobile TV sector, with a suggestion that this could be a good model to follow in other countries because the broadcaster and (two) operators are working together. Of course, it requires that the respective companies be willing to do what the Italian companies did…
“Mediaset, controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owns the frequencies over which Italy’s DVB-H signals are transmitted. The company leases a portion of the network to Telecom Italia and Vodafone. More importantly, Mediaset provides a broad menu of cellphone-formatted video channels that the mobile operators can offer their customers. Operators have the option of finding their own content as well…The model enables both sides to retain their most important assets: The operators still have their relationship with their cellphone customers; the broadcaster still is the main source for content and keeps its relationship with its advertisers.”
Mediaset spent €250 million ($321.7 million) rolling out its DVB-H network (I don’t know how much was paid for the spectrum, or whether that is included in the figure), and leases 25% of the network for €75 million for a five-year lease, an offer taken up by Telecom Italia and Vodafone. That’s slightly more than the cost of the network, but assumes that Mediaset has plans to utilize the other half in some way. In contrast, Hutchison decided to build its own network to launch mobile TV, arguing that it had to differentiate itself from its two bigger competitors. Hutch spent €220 million on the network and supplying its own content could cost it another €10 million a year — but it will launch first. Hutch loves that first mover advantage. The need to provide its own content explains the purchase of a TV station at the end of last year.
As a sidenote, Orange found that users of its mobile video service “snack” on the content, watching 2-3 minutes at a time, whereas trials with DVB-H technology showed that users stayed tuned for an average of 16 minutes.

Sprint Launching Live Emmy Mobile-TV Interaction Game

From: MocoNews

The era of live mobile interaction games tied to TV is heating up in U.S. (beyond SMS voting stuff)...some early efforts are going on, and now Sprint is launching a new app for its user that will allow them to play along with the live Emmy Awards broadcast and predict/choose the winners. Emmys Airplay Live is a free app, and will incur data charges, though minutes are minimal because the application only connects to send the vote.
The app and technology/concept has been developed by AirPlay Network, a new SF-based mobile gaming and application company founded by Morgan Guenther, former president at TiVo.
The Emmy app is designed to allow players to compete against reality TV host Jeff Probst. As the live action unfolds, players can see how their predictions compare with the outcome and how they stack up against Probst, a predetermined group or the national audience. Players accrue points for correct answers and also have the opportunity to score bonus points by answering trivia questions during the live broadcast of the show.

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Can Paris Hilton boost YouTube?


YouTube will unveil a number of custom branded commercial channels tomorrow in its latest move to monetize the site. The bizarre cultural icon Paris Hilton is already highlighted on the front page of the site with her own YouTube channel, to correspond with the release of her debut musical album on Tuesday. Fox has paid an undisclosed sum to advertise its TV show Prison Break on the YouTube channel of Hilton, whose album is produced by Warner Brothers. YouTube reportedly pays more than $1 million each month in bandwidth costs and some people have been concerned that it would be a challenge to turn its huge traffic into money. Thus Paris Hilton to the rescue.

Robin Bechtel, head of new media at Warner Brothers Records, told the Financial Times tonight that Paris Hilton and YouTube were a natural fit. That’s hard to argue with. Hilton’s channel on YouTube contains 13 music videos, a promotion for Paris Hilton cell phone ring tones and custom branding that looks much nicer than the standard YouTube page design. Other branded channels haven’t been identified as of midnight.

YouTube was launched in February of 2005, has raised at least $11.5 million from Sequoia Capital and reports that it delivers more than 100 million videos each day. CEO Chad Hurley said last week that brand driven advertising was of more interest than ads inside of videos and today we get to see that strategy in action. The company said last week that it intends to host every music video ever made within the next two years.

Custom branded channels may create a sufficient partition from the parts of the site filled with copyrighted content and thus command higher ad prices. I’ll be watching the Paris Hilton channel closely and will report further details as they become available.

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Audio Interview: MTV's New User-Gen TV Service Flux

(c) Peggy Anne Salz
Hot on the heels of its August 1 launch, I caught up with Matthew Kershaw, head of digital for MTV UK & Ireland, to talk about Flux, a new channel that allows members to upload their own content on to TV and ultimately control their own TV channel. So far, Kershaw reports "healthy numbers" and only a few glitches. To encourage self-expression MTV -- together with DA Group -- has created 3D avatars for Flux, giving members Manga-like digital identities on any screen. As Kershaw sees it, the avatars are a perfect fit with mobile -- allowing more personalized messaging and providing the basis for merchandising to mobile communities. The push is likely to begin with selling screen savers and the like, but the end-game is to monetize the Flux community. "We also want to extend that private messaging system [with] a mobile option if someone wants to get messages on their phone rather than their PC." It's early days, but, as brands come on board, MTV will seek to make it possible for Flux members to interact with select brands. "No-one wants to be forced to have a big brand splashed all over their personal home page, it's personal. But can we offer a system where we offer a selection of brands, and people can choose their brand."
Community drive: Flux is more than a community; the metrics MTV gathers there will provide the basis for more personalized and targeted advertising and content-selling schemes. Segmentation data is the initial focus for MTV, and the next step is to drill down in the data to present users content suggestions based on profiles, preferences, etc... "Customer segmentation and customer targeting is absolutely on our agenda.... But, first of all, you need to have the direct relationship with the customers."
Comparison with MySpace: Don't make one. Kershaw believes they are misleading. First of all, MTV is trying to build a community around its broadcast -- not an online community. Both have mobile ambitions, but MTV is more focused on music.
Breaking down is best: "We're already thinking to the next stage....The Flux project could almost be too broad, and [we're thinking] are we going to want to launch similar to these kind of communities around some of our more genre based channels....Do we want to even break down our community into more bit sized chunks in the same way we used to just have one MTV, one size fits all....So, yes, absolutely, we think that niche probably will be an emerging trend."

Audio:

Upload music at Bolt.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Chinese Mobile Channel In US

U.S. mobile video aggregator SmartVideo Technologies and Asian content distribution company Content Asia Network (CAN) have teamed up to launch a Chinese language mobile video channel in the US.

"With three live feeds to the CAN channel, consumers of the smarTVideo mobile television network now have real-time access to premium Asian content including TV shows, movies, videos, sports, news, comedy, drama, and cultural programming. Mobile users can subscribe to the CAN channel for $4.95/mo. This subscription page can be viewed in English, Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese."
CAN will be "unleashing a multi-pronged national marketing campaign" to promote the service, but will face the problem of data costs...

(c) MocoNews