MoboVivo moves with eye on future of digital content

Given that it's in one of the fastest-moving industries in Canada - and located in one of the most dynamic provinces - it's no surprise that change is constant at Calgary-based mobile video retailer MoboVivo Inc. The company started out as a mobile game development shop in the spring of 2005. However, CEO and co-founder Trevor Doerksen and his team soon found out that software titles have less staying power and resale value than audio and video, and the move to exploit the lack of a strong online mobile video retailing presence in Canada was on.When Apple Inc. announced the launch of its first video-capable iPod - the device of choice for consuming mobile content - in October 2005, along with plans to sell video content through its iTunes store, Doerksen knew he had an opportunity. After all, it took Apple three years after the launch of the US iTunes music service to bring a similar pay audio download offering to market here. "We knew that they were going to be scared of the CRTC bogeyman and language issues up here, and just the market differences," he says.In the spring of 2006, armed with freshly inked content provisioning agreements with CHUM Ltd. and the CBC, MoboVivo announced its intention to morph into an online mobile video retailer. By September 2006, the site was officially open for business, albeit in beta mode. MoboVivo's portal now boasts channels devoted to documentaries, urban culture, female-centric shows, educational and kids programming, and more.In its previous iteration as a gaming firm, MoboVivo was funded from the pockets of Doerksen and his partners. But the move to selling online video content has drawn the interest of investors - in particular United Equities, a rather secretive investment firm based in Texas. That deal was announced at this year's Banff World Television Festival in June.Doerksen won't talk about the specifics of the United Equities investment - "there's a high end and a low end, and we only want to use what we need," he says - but confides that the spectrum of funding available spans the million-dollar mark.MoboVivo has moved beyond merely servicing the iPod market to embrace additional platforms, such as video-capable mobile phones and portable gaming systems such as Sony's PSP. "We had to do this - if we were just about the iPod, then when Apple comes dead," he says.Confronted with the logistical challenges of offering content for a variety of operating systems, screen sizes and resolutions, and file formats, Doerksen came up with a concept he calls Rapid Repurposing Technology, or RRT. Rather than create copies of every piece of content for each permutation of device hardware and software - Doerksen counted more than 250 possible combinations in December 2006 - RRT allows MoboVivo to perform just-in-time conversion and inform the customer when their files are ready."Our experience so far has been that our average number of purchases is four episodes - they don't want them all at the same time," he says. "Instead, why don't they tell us when they want them, and we'll make sure they're there?" He adds that RRT is still a work in progress - right now, the process is more akin to "TRT - Trevor Repurposing Technology," he quips, meaning he and his staff perform much of the manual conversion work themselves.Rights are another issue MoboVivo has had to contend with under its new business model. Initially, the firm focused its efforts on Canadian content producers, largely because of Doerksen's own background as a film producer. In doing so, an interesting thing happened. Says Doerksen: "90% of the programs online were Canadian, but 90% of the sales were from outside of Canada."However, Canadians themselves largely craved foreign content, posing some difficulty for the company. For instance, most US networks geo-fence their online video content, to preserve relationships with linear TV broadcast partners in other markets. Those relationships mean MoboVivo is frozen out of deals for Canadian online sales of hot US series - at least for the time being - even if no one else is monetizing those rights here.Doerksen adds that the situation could quickly change, with the advent of technologies like Joost serving to "lubricate the marketplace" for online use of broadcast properties. But he's already moving on to the next content idea: the burgeoning industry for "digital items" used in virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of Warcraft.Packaging a virtual couch for Second Life with a broadband TV show for avatars to enjoy while perched upon it might upset some peoples' definition of content, but Doerksen says it just makes sense, especially in the era of DRM circumvention and peer-to-peer filesharing."I think you could probably sell that virtual couch for a whole lot more than you can the TV that they want to watch from it," he observes. "The movie industry gets it - it's all about the popcorn."

MoboVivo moves with eye on future of digital content

Broadcast | August 9, 2007

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