MTV Networks To Begin Mobile Video Ads
MTV Networks (MTVN) announced that it will launch its first-ever mobile video ads on mobile operator video-on-demand services. The U.S. Air Force will be the first advertiser.
The Air Force pre-roll ads will run across MTV’s mobile VOD programming, with the objective of driving viewers to certain episodes of “The How To Show” which are co-branded with the Air Force. The campaign also encompasses the MTV.com mobile Web site.
The campaign has been put together by the U.S. Air Force’s advertising agency GSD&M Idea City.
“Our audiences continue to access and enjoy our premium mobile VOD offerings in droves, and we’re excited to partner with the Air Force to realize the untapped marketing potential at hand for advertisers,” said Greg Clayman, Executive Vice President of Digital Distribution and Business Development for MTV Networks.
MTNV also announced that it will participate in a research project seeking insights into the effectiveness and optimization of premium mobile VOD advertising.
Partnering with MobiTV and operators employing MobiTV’s platform, the study will seek to determine how to program and optimize video ads on premium mobile VOD services, while fostering and maintaining viewer retention, advertising recall and a high quality user experience.
MTVN is the world’s largest provider of mobile video, with more than 80 distribution deals and 40 on-demand and streaming mobile video services worldwide. In the US, MTVN streamed nearly 10 million mobile videos on demand in July across all major U.S. carriers.
“As the mobile industry continues to embrace the ad-supported model, we’re able to make even more great content available to our fans on the handset,” Clayman concluded. [MobiAdNews]
Changing Mobile TV and Video, Cramped Ad Spend
How much revenue will come from ads, and how much from subscription fees?
Worldwide mobile video/television revenue forecasts tend to diverge significantly depending on what is counted and how.
A recent forecast from Informa Telecoms & Media projected that mobile video and television will reach $4.8 billion by 2012, up from $750 million in 2007. The extent of ad-supported versus paid content is not clear from this research.
Specific mobile video revenue forecasts have emerged as well. In November 2007, iSuppli published figures stating that mobile video revenues worldwide will reach $14.6 billion in 2011, with an ad-supported component totaling $3.8 billion.
The company also reported that mobile video advertising worldwide will reach $427 million in 2008. Frost & Sullivan expects mobile TV revenues in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) to climb to $1.88 billion by 2013, up from $440 million in 2007.
Given the wide diversity of market penetration and revenue numbers, marketers cannot look exclusively to the supply side for clear answers about the direction of mobile video and television. [eMarketer]
The Big Picture on Small-Screen Advertising
Imagine holding all TV programming, movies and millions of user-generated videos in the palm of your hand—then add in a few spot ads.
When it comes to justifying serious investments in mobile video and television advertising, marketers are struggling.
On one hand, they cannot ignore the attraction of combining the reach of television with the targeting capabilities of mobile. But, on the other hand, consumer adoption of mobile video and television so far has been underwhelming.
"Historically, the gap between hope and reality for mobile video/television has been attributed to immature technology," says John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Mobile Video and Television: Ads Wait for a Clearer Picture.
"Video content on mobile phones looked broken or washed out. Soundtracks often did not align with the moving images," explains Mr. Gauntt. "The mobile devices themselves were voracious consumers of battery life when displaying video content. And carriers were not sure how commercial video and television services would affect their mobile networks."
Read more - eMarketer
Study: Consumers Not Sold On Mobile Video Services
While nearly one-third of U.S. households have a video-capable mobile phone, operators are struggling to find an audience for their mobile video services, according to Mobile TV: Analysis & Forecast (Second Edition).
This new report by market research firm Parks Associates found a majority of consumers with a video-capable mobile phone have never used the video features. For example, 56% have never watched a video clip using a mobile phone. These low usage rates are discouraging for operators hoping to boost revenues through new TV and video services.
"Buy before you try is always a tough sell," said John Barrett, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Most subscribers must pay additional money to watch video and mobile TV services, even once they have purchased an appropriate phone. This circumstance presents an obvious chicken-and-egg obstacle to adoption. Many consumers are hesitant to pay for a new, unfamiliar service, but they will remain unfamiliar with the service until they or someone they know uses it."
The report predicts operators will overcome this challenge by offering more programming at no cost. "A free taste would go a long way in making the consumer case for mobile TV," he said. "Mobile TV services have taken off in Japan and South Korea, where service is offered free of charge. In Italy, where additional fees have been the norm, usage has been limited. It's in everyone's interest to offer some free programming." [FierceMobileContent]
RipCode and Millennial Media to Offer Best Mobile Ad Delivery Solution
RipCode, Inc., an innovator of Internet and mobile video infrastructure solutions, and Millennial Media, Inc., the largest and fastest-growing mobile advertising company, today announced a partnership that will provide advertisers and mobile content publishers an integrated service featuring Millennial Media's ad targeting and distribution system with RipCode's on-demand video transcoding and delivery technology.
This deal will enable Millennial Media's advertiser clients to easily integrate dynamic, visually rich video into their mobile ad campaigns delivered across Millennial Media's industry-leading mobile advertising networks. RipCode clients benefit through seamless inclusion of video advertising from top brands and the best possible user experience, ensuring a profitable model for providing engaging mobile video content to consumers.
"As mobile video penetration grows, delivery of video advertising is becoming a strategic initiative for many brands as they extend their marketing efforts to mobile devices," said Eric Eller, senior vice president of products and marketing at Millennial Media. "RipCode's technology, one of the select high-performance mobile video solutions we utilize, enables our advertiser clients to create more compelling campaigns that utilize sight, sound and motion to powerfully convey the passion and excitement of their respective brands."
Customizing each advertisement to a device-optimized format becomes critical when considering the high degree of technical differentiation between device attributes including screen resolution, codec implementation, and network delivery protocols.
With RipCode, video files are optimized for delivery on-demand based on the unique capabilities of a customer's mobile handset, a critical feature for ensuring the best user experience and maximizing screen real estate for mobile advertisers. Combined with Millennial Media's intelligent ad targeting, video ads are paired with contextually relevant video content then seamlessly delivered as a single stream with no re-buffering between the ad and the requested content.
"RipCode's mobile and Internet video solutions were designed to meet the needs of today's new media customer," said RipCode CEO Brendon Mills. "As the largest and leading mobile ad network in the industry, it's a natural fit for us to partner with Millennial Media. It enables us to extend video advertising to their impressive list of mobile ad clients and help expand and enrich the monetization model for all mobile video." [FierceWireless]
Study: Few Consumers Spending on Mobile Video
As TV and movie studios push to make more of their video content available online, a just-released study from Knowledge Networks reveals that while consumers are indeed turning to new video technologies - such as online streaming and mobile video - most of their video-related spending continues to be on conventional sources such as DVD rentals and purchases.
New findings from, How People Use the Video Marketplace, also show that Generation Y (ages 13 to 29) - and, to a lesser extent, Generation X (ages 30 to 43) - is way ahead of Young Boomers (ages 44 to 54) in using emerging video sources, such as mobile and streaming, but their spending on such video sources is not significantly higher.
The research is part of The Home Technology Monitor, the authoritative source of information on consumers' ownership and usage of traditional and emerging media technologies. The study shows that the average person aged 13 to 54 spends roughly $31 per month on video-related content. Of this, about $13 goes to TV service, and another $13 from buying and renting DVDs; meanwhile, spending on emerging video distribution channels accounts for less than $5 combined.
Spending on emerging categories is dramatically lower than traditional
According to this Knowledge Networks study, monthly video spending breaks down as follows:
- $13.43 on TV service
- $7.60 for DVD purchase; $5.14 for DVD rental
- 76 cents for VHS rental; $1.85 for VHS purchase
- 61 cents on PPV movies and events
- 44 cents on VOD
- 37 cents on streaming video
- 26 cents on cellphone video
- 25 cents on downloaded video
"DVDs are the bread and butter of content providers," said David Tice, Vice President and Group Account Director at Knowledge Networks and Director of The Home Technology Monitor. "But the growing availability of video in digital forms is impacting peoples' expectations; we found, for example, that 84% of consumers expect to be able to watch video on the device of their choice. The question is, will consumers be willing to pay for the convenience of access in the digital world? And how can content and service providers encourage repeat use and buying in the new media?"
Redford: Big Chance for Short Films on Mobile
Cinema legend Robert Redford touts the mobile platform as the ideal distribution channel for the short-form productions so central to his personal vision for independent filmmaking, arguing "Technology doesn't get traction until artists push their way into it and conjoin with it--the more art lends itself to new technology, it's going to drive it in new commercial ways."
Speaking in Barcelona today at the Mobile Backstage event, produced for Mobile World Congress by the GSM Association in conjunction with Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, the actor, filmmaker and activist explored at length the challenges of maintaining creative independence in a Hollywood environment driven solely by the bottom line. According to Redford, he launched his independent film-development nonprofit Sundance Institute in 1981 in response to a big-budget moviemaking culture growing more and more reliant on proven commodities, special effects and youth-targeted storytelling.
"The wonderful thing about stories is there are so many to be told, which is why I've had little interest in, or patience, for sequels," Redford said. "I think there are too many stories to waste time repeating a story that was already told." He said The Sundance Channel and its accompanying independent film festival were "not meant to be an insurgency against, but an alternative to. There have always been tensions within the industry between artists and leaders around money--it's just a business. With the youth market increasing and technology increasing, it was easy to see the industry was going in that direction, but not, I hoped, at the sake of diversity. My response was 'What if we created a mechanism for new talent and a place for them to go-specifically, independent film."
In late 2006, Sundance announced its entry into mobile entertainment, teaming with the GSM Association to launch the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, an initiative spotlighting three-to-five minute shorts made exclusively for screening on mobile handsets. The shorts premiered at 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona one year ago.
The mobile project grew out of Redford's lifelong passion for the short-film model. "When I was a kid growing up and going to the movies, you got one or two features, Pathé newsreels, cartoons and shorts. I took it all for granted, but what I didn't realize until I got into the business is what a travesty it is that we removed all these parts of the experience of film. So as time went on, I thought 'We're missing something, but [shorts were] so long ago, maybe we can reintroduce that and it will be something new.' I believed that someday, something will happen, and there will be a venue for shorts. Art will always survives--you commit to that idea and create a category, and it may not be ready yet, but someday it will. Now there is a venue for shorts."
Sundance's commitment to developing short content for mobile consumption is now expanding beyond the wireless platform--cable's Sundance Channel will begin broadcasting the mobile shorts alongside feature films and original programming. "The adjustments filmmakers make to make [a mobile short] and the disciplines that are put into play are fabulous, and there are new forms of storytelling coming," Redford said. "I don't think we've explored all the possibilities yet. The only thing you know will keep going is change. If you can't ride with it as a wave, you're out." [FierceMobileContent]
Metacafe Inks Mobile Video Deals
Video entertainment provider Metacafe announced agreements with mobile multimedia service providers Buongiorno, Dyuna and Mobile Streams to deliver short-form video content to handsets.Its VideoRank technology spotlights recommended clips, while its Producer Rewards program relies on viewer response to reward creators for popular efforts. "The short videos featured on Metacafe are well-suited to mobile distribution--perfect for enjoying a quick entertainment break, regardless of time or place," said Metacafe CEO Erick Hachenburg in a prepared statement.
"Our sophisticated approach to programming, which automatically showcases the videos our large and global audience finds most entertaining, ensures a good user experience in the mobile environment, where searching for a video is not practical," he added.
Buongiorno is a trendsetting, independent mobile media and technology company driving the burgeoning cellphone entertainment and personalization industry. With the recent acquisition of iTouch, it becomes No.1 player in the mobile entertainment market worldwide.
It partners with over 100 leading cellular carriers, as well as with media and Internet companies in over 53 countries on 5 continents to distribute, package and create music, games, videos, wallpaper, ringtones, chat, user-generated services, TV voting, quizzes, and to sell advertising.
Buongiorno helps companies market through proprietary labels, and sells directly through its popular Blinko brand. It distributes across the U.S., Europe, Russia, India, the Far East, South America and Mexico, the Middle East, Africa and China. Its reach is already exceeding 840 million customers. [FierceMobileContent/FierceWireless]
YouTube Expands Mobile Video Efforts
YouTube is making its entire catalog of more than 200 million video clips available to all mobile users with 3G phones operating on either a UMTS/HSDPA or EV-DO network. Not only can users view videos, but they can also upload content immediately from their cell phone and view it on a cell phone.
The company says that it has made a huge investment in infrastructure to make this service available. Besides the regular streaming service, YouTube Mobile will also enable users to personalize their service by letting them rate and comment on videos using their phone.
YouTube Mobile product manager Dwipal Desai said that the service will be available to all Sprint and AT&T customers with 3G phones and a data plan. He added that the service currently isn't available on Verizon Wireless EV-DO phones because they don't currently have streaming support.
However, Verizon subscribers can get access to some select YouTube content through the operator's V CAST service. "This service is not tied to a particular OEM or a carrier," Desai said in an interview with FierceMobileContent. "With this launch, we have brought YouTube mainstream."
YouTube also has a free downloadable Java application it is offering through a handful of mobile phones with streaming capabilities. Those phones include the Sony Ericsson k800, w880, Nokia e65, n95, n73, 6610 navigator and 6120 classic. - [Sue /FierceMobileContent]
Quickplay Debuts VideoStreams via BlackBerry
Mobile TV and video solutions provider QuickPlay Media announced the launch of VideoStreams, a free video streaming service optimized for device maker Research In Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.
According to QuickPlay, VideoStreams features entertainment content including music videos, comedy, horoscopes and extreme sports -- a "send to a friend" feature enables users to share clips with contacts - friends and family. VideoStreams will debut on the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 smartphone and is presently available via EVDO-based networks including Sprint and Alltel. The service is available immediately to customers in the United States and Canada.
VideoStreams is initially available on the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 smartphone to subscribers on North American wireless carrier networks that support EVDO (b), such as Sprint Nextel, Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility and Alltel Wireless.
Eligible customers can visit http://www.videostreamsmobile.com/ using the BlackBerry Browser to download the VideoStreams application over the air and to start using the service right away. Videos are streamed to the smartphone so there are no long waits to view the content, and unlike download services, no additional on-device storage is required.
“The mobile market is exploding – with new applications, devices, and services introduced to the world each day – and RIM is a company at the forefront of this rapidly changing marketplace,” said Wayne Purboo, CEO and co-founder, QuickPlay Media. “We are excited to continue our history of innovation by being the first to offer BlackBerry smartphone customers free access to our high quality video services."
“BlackBerry smartphones are attracting a wider range of mobile customers who want to use more personal applications and entertainment services,” said Jeff McDowell, vice president, Global Alliances at Research In Motion. "In turn, this trend is attracting a new class of developer partners, like QuickPlay, who are creating consumer and lifestyle applications that deliver new experiences for BlackBerry smartphone users."
QuickPlay’s VideoStreams service will be available worldwide to more regions and mobile operators as additional BlackBerry smartphones that support streaming video are rolled out on various wireless networks. [FierceWireless]
Bytemobile Offers Carriers New Mobile Advertising Inventory Channel
Bytemobile, Inc., today announced the general availability of its Unison Advertising Module (UAM), which enables operators to serve targeted ads in off-portal web pages on virtually all mobile devices. As a result, carriers can quickly create new ad revenue streams to complement data revenues and subsidize the cost of data delivery.
UAM is part of the latest release of Bytemobile's Unison Multi-Service Platform. It is fully integrated with Unison Web Fidelity Service (WFS), which provides intelligent content adaptation for open internet browsing on mass-market handsets, feature phones and smartphones. Inserting ads via the Web Fidelity Module, operators can monetize subscribers' off-portal experience, in addition to on-portal traffic, and potentially generate a multiple of their data revenues through a new ad inventory channel.
"In an increasingly competitive environment, where mobile convergence is changing the landscape, we are helping our customers to drive data plan adoption, deliver new and richer data services, and now sell advertising on the open Web," said Adrian Hall, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Bytemobile.
"Mobile ads are proving highly effective for several reasons: the one-to-one personalization of the mobile device, its proximity to the point of sale, the value of subscriber data in ad targeting, and consumer receptivity to advertising in exchange for content. This is clearly the direction of the mobile Internet," he added.
According to ABI Research (April 2007), total spending by mobile advertisers worldwide will grow from approximately $3 billion in 2007 to $19 billion in 2011. A November 2006 research study sponsored by Amobee Media Systems found that mobile consumers chose ad-sponsored over pay-for-download video by 50 to 1 and that mobile ad revenues could total up to four times the equivalent download value.
In another study conducted by Harris Interactive and Enpocket in October 2006, 78% of respondents claimed that they would accept mobile internet advertising if it were targeted and relevant to their interests. [WirelessIQ]
Global Mobile TV and Video Get Real
Will we all tune into our phones at the same time?
Infonetics Research's "Mobile Video Devices, Services, and Subscribers" report published May 9, 2007 found that revenue from mobile video is set to increase.
The firm estimated that service provider revenue from mobile video services is expected to triple to nearly $ 200 million worldwide in 2007, after already growing 317% from 2005-2006.
The number of paying subscribers worldwide for 2010 was projected by Infonetics to reach 46 million.
Mobile video involves shuttling video content from a server to an individual handset on demand. Mobile TV works more like broadcast television, with TV tuners embedded in mobile phones.
A separate study by Screen Digest focusing on mobile TV estimated that associated revenues for that technology would reach Eur4.7 billion, based on 140 million subscribers worldwide in 2011.
David MacQueen of Screen Digest said that there are good reasons why carriers will focus on mobile TV over the next several years.
"Regulatory and competitive pressures have pushed down the average consumer spend on voice and messaging," said Mr. MacQueen. "Mobile operators must now look to new content offerings to deliver the business growth they've enjoyed over the past decade."
Read more
Mobile Video Revenues is Forecasted to Triple in 2007
A new report issued by market research firm Infonetics Research says operator revenue from mobile video services jumped 317 percent to almost $200 million worldwide in 2006, with revenues expected to triple in 2007. According to Infonetics, global mobile video subscriber totals increased more than 300 percent between 2005 and 2006, and should exceed 46 million users by 2010.
The Asia Pacific consumer market will lead with 57 percent of the world total in 2006, followed by the Europe/Middle East/Africa market at 31 percent and North America at 10 percent--Infonetics cites the low costs of SK Telecom and NTT DoCoMo's respective mobile video services as the driving force behind the Asia Pacific market's prowess.
"We will continue to see healthy growth in the mobile video services market as mobile operators expand the bandwidth of their existing 3G networks through HSDPA and MBMS, roll out dedicated broadcast networks, and deploy new mobile video service delivery platforms," said Infonetics directing analyst for broadband and IPTV Jeff Heynen in a prepared statement.
"Competition among service providers will keep subscription prices lower in the long term, but that revenue will be supplemented by incremental service revenue from on-demand viewing. We expect to see a spike in mobile video service revenue in 2008 due to the Summer Olympics in Beijing which, similar to last year's World Cup, is a deadline for many operators to get their mobile video services up and running." [FierceMobileContent]
Carriers Adding Mobile TV Worldwide
Fierce competition and customer churn worry mobile carriers worldwide, according to an Infonetics Research study called "Service Provider Plans for Next Gen Mobile and Wireless Broadband."
Almost two-thirds of mobile service providers in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region said that competition and customer retention are their biggest concerns. Most carriers are adding new services to keep customers happy, instead of battling it out in a price war.
Three-fourths of carriers plan to offer mobile video and TV by 2008, doubling the number of those that offer it now. Over half plan to use a content aggregator for mobile video by 2008, up from 43% that do so now.
Study respondents expect the added services to pay off, with revenues from next-gen mobile services up 121% on average by 2008.
Richard Webb of Infonetics described mobile video's potential and pitfalls.
"Beyond basic voice and access services," said Mr. Webb, "mobile and wireless operators are focusing on increasingly popular mobile TV and interactive video services like chat and blogging. Video-based services represent a golden opportunity for operators to diversify their offerings and boost ARPU, but new media services present business model issues as well as technical challenges like streaming and download capabilities." [eMarketer]
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