Mobile video offers opportunities for new formats: iLunch panel

Mobile video is on the move in Canada, but how far will it go? Mobisodes—short video episodes carried on cellphones—are attracting the interest of content providers hoping to discover new audiences and revenue streams. But is there really a market for video that is slightly larger than a postage stamp? And are there ways of creating truly interactive experiences? A recent panel on mobisodes in Toronto, part of the iLunch series sponsored by the New Media Business Alliance with funding from the Ontario Media Development Corp., answered with a cautiously optimistic "yes." The talkfest included content providers and funders, telecom manufacturers and carriers. Martin Thomas, director of business development at Ericsson Canada, provided a reality check by noting that he himself acquired a video-enabled cellphone just eight months ago. North American adoption is "typically one or two years behind Europe," he said, with Asia leading the pack, but added that in recent months Canadian operators have launched their own high-speed networks. "Now is the time to start thinking about how...you create this compelling content and get it to the users in the right target markets." Ericsson is working with other players in the value chain to enhance both the content and the viewing experience. In particular, it wants to make channel zapping possible. "This will be a very good thing for the men, who love to change channels every few seconds," Thomas said. Ericsson is also emphasizing interactive opportunities such as enabling users to check stocks or the weather while listening to the news. Mobile operators especially hope to capture the youth market, which is watching less television and constantly using mobile devices. With at least eight discernable players in the mobisode value chain, Thomas said adequately compensating all parties could be problematic. "If you have a clip that is compelling, how does the operator monetize that, settle up with the content providers and satisfy the whole value chain? One of the big challenges I see is to have a healthy value chain," he said. "You can’t have everyone wanting the biggest piece of the pie....If that happens, the user is going to have to pay $25 a minute." Judy Gladstone, executive director of Bravo!FACT, a CHUM Ltd.-created foundation that funded a series of four mobisodes titled Shorts in Motion, said the title of a short can be crucial to its popularity. "Whether people will go back to it a second time or recommend it to their friends will depend on how much they enjoyed the experience, but just for that initial , you need either name recognition or something in the title that’s going to grab them." Anita Doran, a feature film director whose short The Wandering was funded by Bravo!FACT, called the mobisode "a whole new art form" that gives mobile customers "a moment of escape and allows them to go to another reality for two minutes." She discovered that video for mobile phones requires "strong colours, minimalist patterns and no quick cuts" if it is to run effectively on a tiny screen with low resolution at 14 frames per second. Richard Kanee, manager of new media business development at CHUM Interactive, says his organization is "pretty bullish overall" about cellphone video, but also wary. "We’ve been involved in mobile for a couple of years and there’s a distinct scent here that smells a little bit like the dot.com boom in 1999. There‘s a lot of hype about the potential, but then the reality sinks in and ‘Oh, my God, you mean we have to have a real business model and we actually have to spend money on marketing?’" He emphasized that when making video for mobile, content providers have to consider that the device is personal, intimate and with the owner all the time. "There’s a one-to-one relationship. You’re not going to see a bunch of people crowd around and watch TV on a cellphone." And, Kanee noted, the technology is in its infancy, with low bandwidth, small file sizes and relatively low screen resolution. "What’s really going to work? Who is the real audience here?" he asked rhetorically. "With any new technology, you have to look to the communities of fanatics." Those most likely to overlook the technological limitations and pay for mobisodes, he said, are devotees of sports, music, pornography, celebrity news, and fashion. As such, CHUM is looking at repurposing content from shows such as MuchMusic and Fashion File for mobile video. When rap star 50 Cent slagged the Grammy Awards last year in an exclusive interview with MuchNews, CHUM made sure to offer the content simultaneously on-air, online and on mobile phones. "The response was phenomenal, so we’re hoping to do more of those," says Kane. "The real value that CHUM brings in these early days, from a communications and marketing point of view, is making people aware that this content exists." Andy Wright, director of business development at Bell Mobility, said that while Bell may have come late to the mobisode marketplace, it has now jumped into the lead in video content offerings among Canadian carriers. Nevertheless, adoption by end-users will take time. He noted that text messaging still has only a 30% penetration rate among cellphone users—"and that’s one of our better data services." While Bell has five million cell phone subscribers, they are all at various levels of adoption. "You may have bought your latest handset a month ago," said Wright, "so you won’t buy another one for a year and a half." Nevertheless, Wright said Bell is "very excited about the video space" and has launched three new products. MobiTV is like "a slide show on the phone," pulling direct feeds from a broadcaster and running them over the 1X network. The video plays at anywhere from one to seven frames per second, whereas with the newer EVDO high-speed network available in five Canadian cities to date, video can play at 10 to 15 frames per second. Bell Mobility is also launching an advanced streaming clip service on the Sanyo 2300 EVDO handset, which should be available before the end of the year. "The streaming clip creates a better user experience in that once you’ve opened it, you’re getting those clips right away," Wright said. Wright said that, even though mobile video is not yet regulated, the carriers will still wrestle with the same dilemmas over sexually explicit scenes that television faces. "How are we going to rate these? Our answer at this point is to be PG-13 at the highest-rated . In an infancy market, there’s a lot of content out there that we should make work, and find out how you’re going to deal with the mainstream." Bell Mobility is seeking content that’s not available in other media. For example, Bell has secured the exclusive rights to NHL video highlights. "Imagine every game that was played last night—we’ll have two-minute highlights of those games," said Wright. "You can’t get that on TSN." While acknowledging the GSM ("girls, sports, music") video mix touted by other panelists, Wright noted that kids-oriented content is also popular. When US carrier Verizon Wireless launched its VCAST high-speed service earlier this year, two-minute clips from Sesame Street proved more popular than movie trailers, ESPN sports clips and CNN news clips. The U.S. research firm IDC also published a study earlier this year called Bert and Ernie Go Wireless: The Emergence of the Cell Phone as a Wireless Babysitter.

Mobile video offers opportunities for new formats: iLunch panel

News | 12/22/2005 5:00 am EST

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