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Mobile Entertainment & Commerce
...the analyst view
Edition Twenty Eight - 18th July 2007 | |
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Dear Industry Executive
Mobile TV starts to make an impact — but there’s more to come
Mobile TV has long been tipped to be one of the key content markets for the 21st Century. Early market watchers put their money on broadcast TV being the killer app. Then they all changed their minds and backed streamed clips and Video on Demand (VOD) offerings.
In reality, as service offerings are rolled out globally in anger it seems that both are going to be key. As Juniper Research’s own findings suggest, 2006/7 is turning in to the year of mobile TV and much of that — especially in Japan and the US is broadcast — a market tipped to be worth $11.7 billion by 2011.
While network operators and broadcasters are working on their broadcast mobile TV offerings, others are also looking to roll out more stream-based packages of ‘lite’ versions of TV content — short news bursts, clips from forthcoming movies and TV shows and so on.
One up shot of this is that MNOs are looking at how to develop their own ‘TV’ channels over mobile. At one time this would have been seen as competition to the mobile/broadcast world. Now, there is every chance that they can work together to drive interest in each other.
But there is a stumbling block: the technology. Broadcasters are looking at different ways of using digital radio spectrum — rather than networks — while the MNOs are looking at how to utilize 3G networks to distribute streamed content.
The technology sector, meanwhile, is looking at how to make video and TV-like services work over 2.5G — and that really does open things up.
Yours
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US and Japan to lead mobile TV market — contributing to worldwide revenues of $11.7bn by 2011
Broadcast Mobile TV will reach revenues of $11.7 billion worldwide by 2011, with Japan predicted to lead the market with revenues reaching $2.9 billion and the US will follow closely at $1.8 billion, finds a report published by Juniper Reseach. The UK is also predicted to be a key market at $989m.
Japan is initially offering a free service on its ISDB-T ‘One Seg’ network, Juniper Research predicts that it will start charging for the service in 2008. Japan, US and UK markets are prime breeding grounds for mobile television viewing mainly because of the large appetite for TV viewing.
Aditya Kaul, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research and report author stated that, “2006 has been an interesting year for Mobile TV with a large number of announcements concerning broadcast Mobile TV trials and rollouts, many of them timed with the World Cup in mind. The key highlights have been an increased uptake in streamed Mobile TV services and surprising results from broadcast Mobile TV trials, showing a dramatic increase in the average time spent by the consumer on watching Mobile TV.
“However, there is still some skepticism in the degree of success for broadcast Mobile TV. “Broadcast Mobile TV is definitely a step in the right direction but its success will depend on many factors such as the type of content, content rights, security, spectrum availability, business models, regulation and quality of indoor coverage”, Aditya adds.
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Nokia signs up ROK for Mobile TV over 2.5 and 3G
Handset maker Nokia has signed a deal with technology company ROK TV to provider live and on-demand mobile TV services over existing 2.5 and 3G networks on Nokia’s Downloads service on its E-series of phones.
ROK TV will be available on Nokia E61i and Nokia E65, initially, which the owner simply needs to activate to begin watching the services. Two channel packages will be offered. There will be a five channel 'Strictly Business' package, to be charged in the UK at £5. a month, with a heavy emphasis on business news and information channels such as Bloomberg, CNBC Europe, EuroNews in nine languages. This will be joined by a regional news channels, and a 10 channel 'ROK All' TV package, to be charged at £10.00 a month containing all the live business news channels as well as additional sports news, music videos and comedy channels. As a trial, both TV packages will be free to view for the first two weeks.
ROK TV requires 10mb of GPRS data per hour of streaming and, with mobile TV viewing patterns being for a few minutes at a time, once or twice a day, the typical monthly viewing duration is between two to three hours.
Commenting on the plans, David King, business development manager, Enterprise Solutions, Nokia said "Nokia Eseries customers tend to be professional people who seek instant information and entertainment, on-demand, so it is a logical and practical step to offer our customers a business-orientated mobile TV service."
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T-mobile has a laugh with its 17m UK customers
The UK’s number three network operator T-Mobile, is set to offer its 17 million UK customers, Pocket Comedy TV, a new made-for-mobile TV channel. Pocket Comedy TV is a channel on T-Mobile’s recently launched mobile TV trial service run by mobile TV company Mobix, providing a combination of stand-up and TV comedy together with cartoons and viral comedy clips.
Pocket Comedy TV is a channel designed specifically for mobile TV customers and as an environment for the leading comedy content. It combines content from leading comedians such as Ricky Gervais, Lee Evans and Jack Dee together with popular TV shows such as Father Ted and League of Gentlemen. The channel has been produced to meet the demands of mobile users and the small screen and is refreshed regularly, providing a new viewing experience every time.
“Pocket Comedy will allow T-Mobile customers of all ages to be entertained on the move by accessing top quality comedy on their mobile. We believe that mobile TV will be one of the key personal entertainment mediums and will engage a new audience that will begin to see the benefits of 3G,” says Damian Mulcock, CEO of Mobix.
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Red Circle goes head to head with Jamster in the US market
Having ousted the Crazy Frog as the UK’s most popular mobile youth subscription service, off-portal entertainment content provider Red Circle is setting its sites on also toppling Jamster from the number one spot in the highly lucrative US subscription content market.
Headlining under the brand "Club28282" the company will bring an exciting range of ringtones, wallpapers and videos directly to US consumers using a combination of the company's unique brand of creativity together with targeted marketing.
With an established reputation for customer service in the UK, Australia and Ireland, Red Circle now plans to use this approach to distinguish its US brand. The launch strategy will include both print and online partners and the company plans to get a significant share of a rapidly growing market.
This is perfect timing for Red Circle: A report by eMarketer predicting that the mobile entertainment market will grow from $1.1 billion in 2006 to $15 billion by 2010.
Cathal Fay, CEO of Red Circle Direct, comments: "This is the right time for us to make our entry to the US. We have carefully built up a position of strength in our home market of Europe and we have a very good understanding of the needs of consumers for mobile entertainment services. We also have the capability to rapidly respond to customer needs in a new market, as evidenced by our recent success in Australia. We plan to attain a significant presence in the US over the next twelve month having clearly defined our customer base."
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Skype founding investor delivers major financial backing to United Mobile
Morten Lund, a founding investor in global technology giant Skype, is investing in the international mobile network operator United Mobile. United Mobile provides customers with its own network infrastructure allowing them to make outgoing calls at low rates and receive free incoming calls in over 80 countries worldwide.
United’s key objective is to transfer the Skype model to the mobile phone for average Joe who is travelling. United Mobile will deliver a combination of Truphone, Jajah and Skype on a “One SIM card Service”. The company will be a leader in delivering free mobile telephony worldwide.
“This pioneering new business model will be widely adopted in the world’s leading mobile markets in the near future,” says Lund. “United Mobile has the solution we have all been waiting for – and the revenue I have been looking for.”
This could all be another overhyped competitor to the traditional mobile model, however Lund has a strong track record of successfully establishing and launching technologically innovative, financially profitable businesses in the internet and telephony industry. He was part of the business development team around the globally successful file sharing service KaZaa in 2002. Following this, Lund again worked closely with KaZaa founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis to create the international internet protocol (IP) telephony service Skype.
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Now anyone can be a network operator, claims Sonopia as it signs deal with Wapple
With the social networking phenomenon spreading to the mobile web, US-Ukraine technology company Sonopia has chosen Wapple to deliver rich mobile content to branded mobile services called Sonopias. Using Sonopia’s technology any community, charity, brand, entertainment organisation or group of friends can become a mobile carrier or MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) and share content tailored to their personal interests.
The new portal built by Wapple for Sonopia incorporates its web-based tools that make it simple for Sonopias to create and publish professional mobile internet sites. It allows anyone to build a 'white labelled' mobile community for its users that incorporates social networking functions such as adding friends, uploading photos, content purchasing, blogging and messaging.
Wapple's tools give us the ability to put together mobile services and content that are completely tailored to our partners and their members' lifestyles and preferences," says Juha Christensen, founder and CEO of Sonopia Corporation. "Sonopia is making it possible for anyone to become a mobile carrier in a matter of minutes and changing the way people think about their cell phones."
So far, the idea has been a big success in America, where Sonopia has been noted as a rising force in the internet world. It already has a number of well established Sonopias for organisatons including the National Wildlife Federation, Long Island Ducks, American Medical Students Association and IBM, and is expecting thousands more in the next year. It is now focusing its efforts on the UK.
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Mobile Billing 2007
24 - 27 September, Budapest, Hungary
Mobile Billing 2007 is designed to help mobile operators address the demands of the increasingly complex mobile market and overcome the challenges inherent in billing for services enabled by Next Generation and Converged technologies.
Through four days of focused conference and workshop sessions, the operator-led programme will deliver a variety of perspectives on the on-going challenges that mobile operators face including: pre and post paid convergence, IMS integration, NGN service delivery and billing and developing real time charging systems.
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Freelance Report Authors - Media, Mobile & Telecoms
Juniper Research, UK
Juniper Research is a leading provider of business and market intelligence in the telecommunications and media sectors. They are currently looking to expand their range of analyst reports and are hoping to commission a number of expert analyst/report writers to produce a new range of in-depth reports.
The role requires the author to research a particular telecoms/mobile area and develop an understanding of the dynamics and opportunities in that sector - via secondary/internet research as well as interviews with executives in the field. This results in the production of a circa 100 page report that typically includes chapters on vendor strategies, service provider/operator strategies, technology overview, market analysis, standards/regulation etc plus a suite of forecasts for that sector (assisted by an in-house forecasting expert).
If you have expert knowledge of a sector within the telecoms, mobile or media sector with excellent analytical and communication skills then please apply by contacting Tony Crabtree at tony.crabtree@juniperresearch.com
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Global Music International and Warner Music International make music together
Global Music International , a leading content aggregator delivering music videos and music tones to the telecom industry, and Warner Music China, today announced a content agreement whereby Global Music International will make music from Warner Music's extensive roster of music audio content, including ring tones and ring back tones, available to Chinese mobile service providers.
With the addition of Warner Music's content, Global Music International can further enhance the mobile music experience it provides Chinese consumers by adding music from new local and international artists in the form of audio, ringtones and ringback tones to its current collection of music content, which also includes the entire music video and audio catalog of Sony/BMG Entertainment.
Ken Cheung, Vice President, New Media and Business Development, Warner Music Asia Pacific said, "We see this agreement as an important part of our overall strategy to extend our strategic relationships in China, encourage product innovation, find new ways for our artists to connect with their fans, and develop new revenue streams."
Song BMG and Dada to provide digital entertainment service
Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Italian-based company Dada have announced a joint venture called Dada Entertainment LLC.
This integrated web and mobile entertainment service will initially be launched in the USA. Content such as ringtones, images, mobile games, and full-length audio and video tracks will be made available to download on both mobile and computer.
The associated web service will offer photo and video sharing, blogs, social-networking and user-generated content. Revenues for the service will be mostly gained from subscription costs, advertising and pay-per download charges. Users will also be given the option with the 'friend$' program to earn money by placing advertisements on their webpages.
Price: £1490 (Single User) £1990 (Multi User) £2990 (Enterprise Wide)
Providing an in depth analysis of the payment and mobile industries current and future strategies, the Mobile Payments: Strategies and Markets report projects the most comprehensive regional market data obtainable to date.
With a detailed forecasting suite predicting changes in the market until 2011, this report provides the complete analysis of the opportunities available for mobile operators, credit card networks, banks, vendors, handset manufacturers, chip manufacturers and hardware providers.
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