A revolutionary new MVNO offering free ad-supported voice, text and content will launch across Europe next summer. 'Blyk' will be available exclusively to 16 to 24 year-olds and will go live first in the UK from June. The Helsinki-based company, founded by a consortium of mobile and advertising execs, believes its radical business model will appeal to price-sensitive youngsters open to a ‘dialogue’ with marketers.
Jon Fisher, marketing director of Blyk, said: “We’re positioning this as a one-to-one media channel. By signing up for Blyk, consumers agree to take ads so it’s effectively 100 per cent opt-in. We’re giving brands a chance to start a dialogue with consumers and, from our early discussions, they’re very keen to do so.”
Details are scarce at this early stage. Blyk will not confirm which advertisers it has spoken to, the maximum allowance of ‘free’ text, voice and content, or which networks it will lease capacity from.
However, the company is certainly hitting a ‘sweet spot’ from the mobile content industry’s perspective, with interest in ad-funded products on the rise and voice tariffs falling across mature mobile territories.
Fisher confirmed that content would form a key part of the Blyk offering: “There will be a Blyk portal and, where we can, we will seek to make content free.” He also confirmed that users would be able to browse off-portal content services too.
Although the Blyk business model is a radical proposition, there are smaller precedents for it. In Russia, Gigafone is offering free calls and texts for smartphone users when they opt in to receive targeted advertising, while companies such as Amobee, Actionality and Rhythm Media are embedding subsidised content with ads.
Google has begun sharing advertising revenue with the makers of a popular video clip in a groundbreaking deal that could drive up the costs of competing in the fledgling video-sharing sector.
The search company has agreed to turn over most advertising revenue generated by the latest video from Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, creators of "The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment," according to Peter Chane, a senior product manager for Google Video.
In exchange, Grobe and Voltz, who saw their original offering--which shows a version of Vegas' Bellagio Fountains made of 101 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos--catch fire with video-sharing fans last summer, have agreed to let Google host their latest video, "The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment II."
Until now, most amateur-made material that appears on video-sharing sites was made for fun. But inviting talented videographers to share in the ad revenue generated by their clips is the way of the video-sharing future, analysts say. Metacafe, one of the top 10 video-sharing sites, also announced on Monday that it will pay $5 to video creators for every 1,000 times their video is watched.
Critics argue that most video-sharing companies are profitless, and their costs, such as the high price of bandwidth, make sharing ad revenue difficult. Yet, video-sharing site Revver.com has shown that rewarding video makers helps attract the best talent. The Los Angeles-based company, which pays 50 percent of ad revenue to videographers, has drawn some of the Web's top auteurs, including the producers of Lonelygirl15, a much-watched fictional video series about a home-schooled teenage girl.
Revver is betting that audiences will follow the best video makers. Apparently, the deep-pocketed Google is making the same bet.
"This is the first case where we matched up video content with advertising," Chane said. "We've taken user-submitted material that is not considered professional content and monetized it." Best of CES 2007 Awards CNET Reviews is gearing up to host the 2007 Best of CES Awards to recognize top new products at the show in 10 categories. The awards are open to exhibitors at CES 2007; submissions must be received by Dec. 1. Submit now Now on News.com:
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How long will it be before YouTube, which sees more than 50,000 videos uploaded to its site daily, begins writing checks to its content creators? Google acquired YouTube, the sector's largest company, earlier this month for $1.65 billion.
"Until the deal closes, we're continuing to operate as two separate companies," a Google representative said in an e-mail.
YouTube could not be reached for comment.
One thing is sure: Stupid pet tricks and people acting goofy on camera have never been as lucrative a business.
Grobe and Voltz, for instance, pocketed $35,000, their share of the ad revenue paid to them by Revver, for their first Coke-and-Mentos video back in July. Now, the pair could earn big bucks from Google if the latest video is a hit. The two are also hosting a video-making contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, which paid them an undisclosed amount.
Swisscom запустила новый телевизионный интернет-сервис
Швейцарская телекоммуникационная группа Swisscom запустила передовую телевизионную интернет-услугу, которая по ожиданиям группы принесет годовые доходы в размере более 100 млн. швейцарских франков.
Swisscom является одним их первых в мире операторов, готовящихся к коммерческому запуску Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), играющего ключевую роль для операторов в конкуренции с операторами кабельного телевидения в комбинации с услугами телефонии, широкополосного доступа и телевизионных услуг.
Как отметили представители группы в своем заявлении, за абонентскую плату в размере 29 франков в месяц отдельно от телефонии и доступа в интернет услуга предоставляет более 100 телевизионных и 70 радиоканалов, наряду со спортивными трансляциями и видео по запросу.
Группа, доходы которой за первое полугодие 2006 г. сократились на 2,8% и составили $3,84 млрд., предоставляет услугу на базе широкополосного доступа.
Swisscom преодолела ряд технических проблем по предоставлению телевизионного сигнала высокого качества по старым медным телефонным проводам. Запуск услуги откладывался несколько раз из-за возникавших в системе технических неполадок, использующей платформу Microsoft.
По словам исполнительного директора Swisscom Fixnet Юли Дитикера (Ueli Dietiker), им пришлось помогать в разработке платформы Microsoft Internet-TV.
Microsoft работала совместно с Alcatel и Siemens, двумя ведущими в мире компаниями, которые предоставляют услуги по модернизации сетевого оборудования и телевизионного программного обеспечения.
"Это первая услуга в своем секторе и одновременно сложный проект, задействующий различные технологии от ряда участников", - заявила представитель Microsoft TV.
Swisscom вложила 600 млн. швейцарских франков в создание сети VDSL, а также затратила около 10 млн. франков на приложения Bluewin TV.
Компания испытывает повышенную конкуренцию со стороны оператора кабельного телевидения Cablecom. Аналитик из Zuercher Kantonalbank заявил, что новое предложение может способствовать Swisscom обрести клиентов.
Дитикер заявил, что Bluewin TV будет доступно лишь в комплексе с другими сервисами Swisscom, однако компания ищет возможность ее предоставления и другим провайдерам.
Исполнительный директор Swisscom Карстен Шольтер (Carsten Schloter) сообщил, что в ранних версиях системы переключение между программами занимало несколько секунд и возникало расхождение в синхронизации изображения и звука.
В других странах бывшие телекоммуникационные монополии также пытались бороться с падением цен и ужесточающейся конкуренцией, предоставляя новые мультимедийные услуги.
Две недели назад Deutsche Telekom запустила свою услугу Internet TV, которая также содержит проводную телефонию, сверхскоростной широкополосный доступ в интернет и IPTV.
Successful mobile content, we keep hearing, needs to be made for mobile. Endemol has produced a series of successful mobile projects and Michiel de Gooijer, head of mobile TV and video and Endemol’s business development manager, said more and more of the indie company’s mobile TV income will come from tailor-made packages. Endemol has already done several deals including with H3G in Italy and with Orange in France generating what he says are “very, very big numbers”.
In 2005, the infamous Big Brother brand clocked up six million viewing minutes between one million people in Australia, Italy and the UK. “We’re very proud of it and what it has done for our company - the uprising of digital media gives us the opportunity to be commissioned customers we traditionally didn’t work with.” Endemol’s traditional client base is with broadcasters, but on the back of its success in the digital market the company is developing more made for mobile and made for web content. “I think a large piece of our mobile TV and video income will be derived from tailor made, and from smart repackaging of our existing back catalogue.” -- Four types of mobile content: He categorises Endemol’s mobile content as simulcasts, spin-offs, back-catalogue work and made-for-mobile projects. Simulcasts, in the case of Big Brother, proved more popular than two-to-three minute highlights. The most exciting aspect is that this is not traditional TV - it’s a whole new medium where the most popular material was supplemental to the TV show. Star Academy in France is a good example of a spin-off product. “We publish extra auditions which were not shown on the internet or on the TV show and we did a behind the scenes, interview with the director of the programme, the cameraman and so on. Not rocket science, but it’s extremely popular and does really well.” During the last series in 2005, Endemol partnered with Apple on a behind-the-scenes video podcast through iTunes that recorded very large numbers in just a few weeks. “The highlights and other footage that was already on the web and TV did OK, but the special did much better, like the behind-the-scenes Star Academy clips.” Another example of spin-offs are the Totally Frank mobisodes that Endemol worked on for Channel 4. They used the same script writers as the TV show, producing two-to-three minute episodes only available on mobile. Every time, he says, made-for-mobile content is always more successful than re-appropriated TV content. Another source of material is the back catalogue. Endemol will shortly release a mobile channel called Home Video Junk which repackages archive home video footage and is fronted by two Beavis & Butthead-type animated aliens. “The content of traditional home videos is pretty corny, but by having edgy comments and these funny characters commenting, it makes it much more appealing for 3G users.” Made-for-Mobile: De Gooijer’s pet project has been Get Close To… Sugababes, produced in the UK exclusively for O2. It combines backstage tour footage from an Endemol DV cameraman with personal diaries recorded by the girls on their Nokia N90 mobile phones. That is footage the camera team would never have been able to capture, and because it is designed for mobile, it offers a better user experience. Vcould send video of their questions and comments to the band members, and influencing the set list and the girls’ outfits. Material was published within 36 hours so it was always topical. “If you know that people have only got a couple of minutes of spare time, basically that’s mostly when people will use this kind of service and it’s extremely important that you give people control over when they watch. We see the fixed-TV world moving more and more towards video on demand, and for mobile the so-called Holy Grail would be mobile broadcasting? I don’t doubt that.” -- The risks of made-for-mobile formats: Operators are often reluctant to share information, such as 3G user numbers. That means it’s difficult for Endemol to make the business case for investing in its own made-for-mobile projects without a definite commission. “I can’t make the business case because I don’t have the numbers. We don’t know how many people would get access to it and would be willing to pay.” In three years he predicts the market will be as much as ten times bigger and the public will be much more educated about mobile TV and video services. “They’ll see it everywhere, the user interface will have improved, pricing will,hopefully, be more transparent, user friendly interactivity combined with mobile TV and video will be a reality and advertisers will be on board too. So I’d expect the usage per user as well to increase. Then it might be interesting for us to work more on a mixed model of partially commissioned work combined with revenue share. But currently it is too early.” Projects like Home Video Junk, on the other hand, are internally financed because it’s an easy, relatively low-risk format to put together and, because it uses Endemol’s own back catalogue, the overheads are low. “We can offer that to all the operators worldwide - we just have to adapt the voiceovers, produce for maybe three months and then sell throughout the year to different operators. That is content which has international potential.” Similarly the Get Close To format has international potential and Endemol is discussing local versions of that format around the world.
