Mobile TV Popular But Outshone By Communication, Interest In Iphone—Canalys

(c) MocoNews

By James Quintana Pearce

A survey by Canalys has shown a moderately strong interest in mobile TV. The online survey was conducted in April among more than 2,000 employed, adult mobile phone users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, and found that 49 percent of respondents had absolutely no interest in mobile TV—even a free service. So 51 percent (of a very large audience) is interested in some form of mobile TV, but Canalys points out that a range of content and options is required to get these customers.

For example:

• 29 percent showed interest in Live TV such as sport or reality shows

• 23 percent showed interest in content related to hobbies or personal interests that they could not get at home

• 23 percent showed interest in watching the shows they did get at home

• 15 percent said they would be interested in watching videos from web sites such as YouTube

• 14 percent liked the idea of place-shifting content that they had already recorded at home

• There was similar levels of interest in short clips, half-hour programmes and full-length movies

• For ad-supported services, the survey showed higher interest around vehicle and pedestrian navigation, mobile e-mail and IM than for TV.

Canalys also asked what brands consumers would consider when choosing their next phone (which is a good question, since realistically very few people can tell you what brand of handset they’ll buy next, but they know what types they’ll be looking at). 84 percent would consider Nokia, and this was followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola (I’m guessing these rankings would be different in the US). Apple had a mid-table position, behind LG but slightly ahead of RIM, HP and Palm. Not incredibly high, but pretty good considering it’s not even on the market yet.

Technorati tags: mobile TV

Spidey slings far-reaching web

(c) RCR Wireless News

Film’s success highlights importance of broad promotional channels

“Spider-Man 3” hit box-office gold as it broke the U.S. and global opening weekend box office records upon release the first weekend of May. While much of the film industry sees the success as a welcome respite, and perhaps turnaround, from the steady decline in moviegoers, none were more pleased with the result than Sony Pictures Digital Inc.

The film and TV giant has been pushing its marketing to multiple screens as of late and believes it’s starting to see the fruits of its new-found labors. The third instalment in the Spider-Man series brought in a staggering $382 million in worldwide ticket sales during its opening weekend, which means more than four out of every five moviegoers saw the film upon release on more than 13,000 screens. It shattered the previous opening weekend box-office record by almost $130 million.

Prior to the film’s release, Andy Bishop, VP of mobile entertainment at Sony Pictures, highlighted some of the studio’s efforts in mobile advertising at the Mobile Content Partnership Summit in Los Angeles.

“You really need to take advantage of all the screens available to you,” Bishop said. The company has been speeding up its pursuit of partnerships with carriers, distributors, broadcasters and other players in the industry as it eyes the new opportunities presented by the mobile environment.

Three-screen challenges

Yet still, challenges permeate the studios best intentions as many advertisers are not set up to work on three-screen promotion, Bishop said. In its efforts on mobile, Sony focuses on creating content that works well for the unique opportunities in each market, but doesn’t necessarily differentiate its offering between carriers in those markets.

Through that approach, Sony is finding significant traction and interest among Latinos, like many others in the industry, Bishop said. So in Latin America, where 3G networks are scarce, Sony is creating shorter-form clips that work better under those conditions.

Carriers remain key

As Sony and the industry as a whole pursue ad-supported models to help offset the costs of distributing content to multiple platforms, the walled garden enforced by carriers continues to halt them in their tracks. “I think the carriers are still very much an important part of the process,” Bishop said, emphasizing the importance of partnering with carriers as they push promotional content to subscribers. “We still are very reliant on the mobile operator as a way to contact the subscriber and let them know.”

The ad-supported model eventually will change subscribers’ perceptions of what they can expect for free, Bishop said. “On the Internet, everyone expects everything to be free; if it’s not free nobody wants it,” he said, adding that carriers have gotten their subscribers accustomed to paying for content.

It puts studios, like Sony, on a fence as they try to balance free and pay-for promotional content. With “Spider-Man 3,” the studio offered previews of special behind-the-scenes footage, fan updates and user-generated content for the mobile phone. It also heavily marketed a mobile game and provided wallpapers for a fee.

Dial M for entertainment, the mobile revolution

(c) The Guardian

The phone company Orange reveals today how its 15 million customers are using their mobiles as entertainment centres for music, videos and games.

The company's first digital media index shows its customers send 872m text messages a month, with most sent between 4pm and 8pm as people plan a night out. Despite being launched five years ago, picture messaging, however, remains something of a niche service with 5.4m sent a month.

Many mobile phones can access the internet - Orange also has more than 2.1 million customers accessing the web each month - as well as downloading games, ringtones and video clips. In the first three months of this year, almost 750,000 games were downloaded on the Orange network, with Sonic the Hedgehog, Worms and Space Invaders (Anniversary Edition) the top three choices.

Gavin Forth, head of entertainment at Orange, said players are split fairly across the gender divide. "The average age of a mobile games downloader is 30 - older than traditionally seen in the games industry," he said.

Part of the reason for the age difference between players on consoles and handsets may be because mobile phones that can easily and quickly access games are usually more expensive or tied to a contract, while the teenage audience tends to use pay as you go phones.

But when it comes to downloading wallpaper, which most phones can do, the picture is very different. About 65,000 images are downloaded by Orange customers every month and scantily clad women dominate the charts.

The most downloaded images in the first three months of this year include a host of female "wrestlers" - known as "WWE Girls" and "WWE Divas". Animal, the exuberant drummer from the Muppets, is also in the top 10 as is the flag of St George. "There's an interesting correlation between the posters that adorn teenagers bedrooms and the wallpaper they download for their phones," said Mr Forth. "Generally, boys download more mobile wallpapers than girls, and your average 16-year-old lad's bedroom wall is plastered with wrestling, girls and film posters ... that's what they're downloading on to their phones as well."

The youth end of the market also seems more taken with downloading songs, with more than 250,000 music tracks, ringtones and music videos downloaded a month. Most activity is in the late afternoon and at the weekend, suggesting the majority of users are children just out of school.

As for mobile video, movie trailers remain the most requested clips, followed by sports clips and what Orange terms "babes". More "adult" content accounts for 4% of mobile video.

Sporting events score high on mobile TV - which is "streamed" live to a handset rather than downloaded to be watched whenever the user wants. Orange's live coverage of the cricket World Cup was the most popular content watched over the first quarter of the year.

"The Live World Cup Cricket channel was only launched in March, but it topped the charts of the highest viewed channel for the entire quarter, said Deborah Tonroe, Orange's head of TV and video. "Clearly, live sport is going to play a key role in the future of mobile television."

Top tens

Video downloads

1 The Simpsons Movie trailer

2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer

3 Rocky Balboa trailer

4 Creature Comforts for Comic Relief

5 South Park - Earth is a Reality Show

6 Celebrity Big Brother - live stream

7 Hot Fuzz trailer

8 Angry Kid - Love Bites

9 Leona Lewis - A Moment Like This

10 WWE Diva Short - Candice

Music Tracks

1 Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

2 Grace Kelly - Mika

3 Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs

4 How To Save A Life - The Fray

5 Same Jeans - The View

6 What Goes Around...Comes Around - Justin Timberlake

7 Boogie 2Nite - Booty Luv

8 Alfie - Lily Allen

9 Tell Me - Diddy and Christina Aguilera

10 Put Your Hands Up For Detroit - Fedde Le Grande