Vast potential for mobile entertainment, experts say

OTTAWA—A panel of experts on the mobile industry said Thursday there is significant potential for mobile entertainment sales as more Canadians engage in “impulse commerce” and use their wireless devices for more than communication. The panel, called “Mobile Entertainment—Understanding the Value Chain,” was part of the Prime Time in Ottawa conference organized by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA). Gary Schwartz, a panelist and CEO of Impact Mobile, a company that enables mobile marketing, said Canadians remain in the very early stages of monetizing content on mobile platforms. “Making money in mobile is all about impulse commerce,” he said. While applications available on Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Google’s Android operating system continue to create buzz in the wireless world, Schwartz emphasized that SMS texts and mobile Internet should not be discounted. Schwartz said it is very difficult to break into the fragmented applications market. He cited Nielson research data that said most people only use five applications on their mobile device on a regular basis. Greg Philpott, founder and president of mDialog, a company that delivers video advertising content for the iPhone, said mobile devices increase the relevancy of certain types of content. A person can receive targeted advertising based on their immediate geographic location, for example. Philpott has a more positive outlook on the applications marketplace than Schwartz, but emphasized that “you need to create content that an audience wants to come back to.” Jeff MacPherson, one of the creators of the popular web series Tiki Bar TV, shared his experiences as a content creator and his efforts to generate income through mobile devices. The Tiki Bar TV show, which pioneered the video podcast medium, reaches a regular audience of 300,000 to 500,000 viewers per episode. MacPherson has made episodes of the show available through an application for the iPhone that is available for $2.99. The application includes premium content, such as behind-the-scenes interviews and director commentaries. MacPherson said it the $2.99 app charge is only the second time he has charged for his content. The first was when he released a Tiki Bar TV DVD. “A decent number of people bought the app, but we got some responses that said, ‘$2.99? Are you out of your mind?’ with 10 exclamation marks,” MacPherson said. He said that he and his partners continue to experiment with different models. He may decide to make the application free and charge for premium content. Myro Fal, manager of operations and programming with Telus Corp., also a panellist Thursday, spoke about the new potential for high quality content that the company’s new HSPA wireless network will allow. Some audience members raised congestion issues that American carriers have had to face from high data usage, but Fal said Canadian carriers have learned from their mistakes. Fal said Canada’s new wireless networks are faster than most in the United States, and that Canada’s population is not large enough to generate the same levels of network congestion. Philpott said that improved 3G networks will create huge opportunities for content delivery. “The delivery of content will be wherever the audience will be,” he said.

Vast potential for mobile entertainment, experts say

News | 02/18/2010 11:31 pm EST

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