mobileentertainment's Podcast

As brilliant as Lynch is, he is not understanding the deal with Millennials and their media -- fans watch their favorite films for the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 20th time on ipods, phones, laptops, etc. It's part of the "ownership" of media that they love. It's a GOOD thing David, not a bad thing. In the 70's you could only see ERASUREHEAD when the theater boss decided to show it, and if you could be available at the exact time and place it was shown... now fans can carry the film with them and look over their favorite scenes, cut and mash-up the film, send it as movie-messages, remix their own soundtrack to it, etc. It's a new century.

Did I mention that the LA Times article & poll was going to create a negative "conventional wisdom" (CW) buzz in Hollywood... Here is an example from the FILM & VIDEO website -- and I assume, the print version too.

SHOULD YOU CARE?

A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll finds that only 14 percent of teenagers aged 12 to 17 say they want to watch TV on their cell phone, while 17 percent would consider watching on a video iPod or other portable device. (By contrast, 42 percent say they'd watch TV on a computer screen.)

SHOULD YOU CARE? NO. Kids aren't stupid. Have you tried watching television on your phone? It's a terrible experience -- the sound is bad and the video is worse. In the early days of CD-ROM technology, tiny MPEG-1 clips running at postage-stamp sizes on the screen of your Windows 98 PC were more compelling. Even the larger iPod screen (320x240) can induce iStrain. But this too shall pass -- once viewing technology exits the dark ages and cleverly designed gizmos with better screens (and more bandwidth for media) become the norm, expect the kids to come around. For now, don't bet the farm on mobile media -- but don't write it off, either.

... "Oh it sucks... but don't write it off either"... we call that "KYA" here in the big city. Expect this CW to come out of Hollywood execs and agents mouth's like a mantra for the next 9 months...

More rosy predictions for Mobile Video...

The PRESS RELEASE follows from analyst firm Infonetics Research.

If mobile video providers are able to resolve a number of quality- and content-related issues -- and analyst firm Infonetics Research thinks they are -- revenue generated from mobile video services around the world is set to skyrocket from $46.2 million in 2005 to $5.6 billion in 2009, a staggering 11,997% jump in 5 years.

According to Infonetics' latest market outlook report, "Mobile Video Devices, Services, and Subscribers," mobile video is the wave of the future. But that wave won't crest until vendors and providers address a long list of difficult but surmountable challenges.

"The success of mobile video hinges on a number of factors, including the availability of handsets with reduced power consumption, value for the subscriber's money, ease of use, acceptable price points for multimedia handsets, and most importantly, the right selection of standard and unique channels, content, and services," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV at Infonetics.

"All of these challenges are within reason of being resolved quickly," Heynen continued. "Mobile video needs to replicate the home TV experience as much as possible, be it over broadcast (RF) or unicast (3G) mobile devices. The mobile video services available today leave a lot to be desired, but people are still subscribing because they're excited about the future of the technology. The convenience it provides outweighs its limitations."

Mobile operators are expanding the bandwidth of their existing 3G networks through HSDPA and MBMS, rolling out dedicated, RF-based broadcast networks, and deploying new mobile video service delivery platforms (SDPs), all steps that pave the way to offer the same content as we see on regular satellite, digital, or cable TV at home.

Infonetics' report indicates that sports will serve as a major content anchor for most mobile video service providers, as exclusive coverage will help drive advertising revenue, subscriber growth, and support for other prime time programming. In the US, Sprint/Nextel has a 5-year $600 million deal with the National Football League (NFL) to deliver highlights from the week's games and real-time updates of scores and player statistics. And in South Korea, Japan, and throughout Europe, mobile video operators who streamed and broadcast the 2006 World Cup games and highlights saw a huge spike in mobile video subscriptions. Infonetics says we can expect more of the same in the future.

Report Highlights

-- The number of worldwide mobile video subscribers will jump 8,006% between 2005 and 2009

-- Asia Pacific leads with roughly half of the world's mobile video subscribers and the largest portion of mobile video service revenue, every year from 2005 to 2009

-- The number of mobile video handsets sold worldwide is expected to grow from 28 million in 2005 to 336 million in 2009

Yikes! More butt-kicking of the infant Mobile video/TV medium. ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE PAPER NO LESS. It's like pounding a six-month old child with a hockey stick because it doesn't have a job. A sample from the times report entitled: NO BIG DEMAND FOR SMALL SCREEN.

You SHOULD read the entire article HERE

Front page HERE.

Poll HERE..

EXCERPT FROM ARTICLE: "Tech-savvy young people aren't as eager to watch TV on their cellphones and iPods as networks might think.

By Matea Gold, Times Staff Writer August 10, 2006

Before Kaitlyn Brown headed to church camp this summer, her mother outfitted the 13-year-old with a sleek new Sprint phone that boasts one of the newest features on the market: mobile television.

"Me and my mom thought it would be a cool thing," said the soon-to-be seventh-grader, who lives in Spring Branch, Texas. But after watching a couple of jerky transmissions of comedy clips on the phone's display panel, Brown quickly became disenchanted.

"It kept stopping midstream and stuff," she said. "I didn't really like it, so I took it off. It was extra money, and I didn't think it was worth it."

She's not alone.

Entertainment purveyors may be scrambling to package their content into mobisodes, video downloads and podcasts, but a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that teens and young adults - the generation most likely to be the early adopters of this new technology - have yet to fully embrace it.

About half of young adults and 4 in 10 teenagers said they were uninterested in watching television shows or movies on computers, cellphones or hand-held devices such as video iPods, the poll found.

While more than 2 out of 5 teens and young adults indicated they were open to viewing this kind of content online, only 14% of teenagers said they wanted to watch television on a cellphone, and 17% said they would view programs on an iPod.

The findings suggest that networks are rushing to package content for these new platforms before even tech-savvy young consumers are hankering for the "third screen" experience.

The survey, which asked a wide range of questions about entertainment consumption, highlighted the pervasive influence of television particularly on tween girls, a majority of whom reported that TV shows affected their dress, speech, music preferences or social activities. In addition, it found that a surprisingly high number of teenagers and young adults gleaned news from traditional media sources such as local television and network newscasts - for many through a sort of information osmosis as they absorbed news from programs their parents were watching.

Perhaps most intriguing, however, was the indication of a widespread indifference toward small-screen viewing among teenagers and young adults. While many in the industry expect the demand for such content to rise dramatically in the coming years, the poll offered clues to a consumer reluctance that first must be overcome.

In follow-up interviews with those surveyed, many young people said they were intrigued by the notion of getting their entertainment on devices such as cellphones and iPods. But two major obstacles have so far dampened their enthusiasm: the cost and the uneven quality of the experience."

COMMENT: I have a major gripe with this poll -- the key question: "Q: On which of the following devices would you want to watch a movie? " if fundamentally flawed... I wouldn't want to watch a "movie" (which generally means a feature length program - more than 90 minutes) on a mobile phone either -- HERE'S THE POINT... This generation is thriving on a new "Clip Culture"... YouTube is the greatest example (how many of the 53% of the teens polled who said they would NOT watch a movie on thir computer, have watched clips on YouTube?)

What will be interesting is how this effects the "suits" at the studios -- who have already been bumbling around the edges of this new medium. You can be sure every entertainment executive in Hollywood has read this article.

From OPTIMUS (Portugal). A "must see"...

WATCH

Cingular (USA) just rolled out their first phone for its HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network, enabling customers to access mobile entertainment via a high-speed network. They claim speeds of 400 kilobits per second to 700 kbps, with burst speeds as high as 1 megabit per second. Cingular subscribers use the network for consumer applications, namely the Cingular Video service, which offers news, sports, movie trailers, and clips from TV shows. Like all the mobile operators, Cingular is counting on users to get on the phone-based-entertainment bandwagon (so do we), along with enterprise use, to make this expensive high-speed network pay off. The Cingular Video Service should be the biggest beneficiary of this new bandwidth -- hopefully we will see INNOVATIVE CONTENT as well, to go with the innovative network and innovative handset.

The phone is the The CU500, from LG Electronics, a RAZR-like clamshell phone that includes a music player for MP3, AAC, and AAC Plus songs. It comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera with a rotating lens and video capability, as well as a MicroSD slot for storage. I think it looks great. Nokia, SEM, Moto - where are you on this? Why do the Koreans ALWAYS seem to offer all the handsets for ALL the new American 3G services at launch? Hats off to them!

Read more here...

The Phone

The Service

From Cellular News:

A new series of combined broadcast systems from broadcast solutions group, Radio Frequency Systems (RFS), is providing dual-channel mobile TV service to China's southern province of Guangdong. Implemented in three stages and scheduled for completion in mid-2007, the Guangdong mobile TV project incorporates 42 separate RFS antenna systems, and represents the largest commercial mobile television network in the world to-date.

Read the article: HERE

Guangdong province is by far the most active in mobile content sales and data services. In the south near Hong Kong, it has more highly paid workers than other provinces with a bit more extra cash to spend on frivolities like mobile games & personalization. With transmission sites located in Guangdong province cities of Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, the country's latest broadcast installation is predicted to attract over three million viewers.

Jupiter Research just announced a report focused on Europe and Mobile Entertainment. They say that only 8% of Europeans want "Mobile Video" or "Mobile TV" or whatever we are calling it... (What about PocketCinema?)

This conflicts (seemingly) with a ORC International report based on the UK (funded by Microsoft) that says 44% of UK mobile subscibers want "Mobile TV" and that the number was even higher among 16 to 24 year olds, the key Mobile Entertainment demo.

Yes, I know the UK does not consider itself part of Europe :) But those are BIG differences in numbers.

My only comment is that in 1995 if you asked 1000 people if they wanted to type very short messages with their thumbs and send them to other people and PAY for the honor, how many would have said "yes?". What made SMS the global phenom that it is, was 2 things... the fact that it struck people as a cool, slightly subversive and hip way to communicate and that texting itself, amoung the young, it became as much ENTERTAINMENT as COMMUNICATION. (high voice tariffs helped too).

When PocketCinema becomes unique, social and invents itself as a new form of "Communitainment"... no teenager in the world will be able to do without it.

(FROM MOCO NET NEWS) The Wall Street Journal has a detailed account of the Italian mobile TV sector, with a suggestion that this could be a good model to follow in other countries because the broadcaster and (two) operators are working together. Of course, it requires that the respective companies be willing to do what the Italian companies did... "Mediaset, controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, owns the frequencies over which Italy's DVB-H signals are transmitted. The company leases a portion of the network to Telecom Italia and Vodafone. More importantly, Mediaset provides a broad menu of cellphone-formatted video channels that the mobile operators can offer their customers. Operators have the option of finding their own content as well...The model enables both sides to retain their most important assets: The operators still have their relationship with their cellphone customers; the broadcaster still is the main source for content and keeps its relationship with its advertisers." Mediaset spent Euro 250 million ($321.7 million) rolling out its DVB-H network and leases 25% of the network for Euro 75 million for a five-year lease, an offer taken up by Telecom Italia and Vodafone. That's slightly more than the cost of the network, but assumes that Mediaset has plans to utilize the other half in some way. In contrast, Hutchison decided to build its own network to launch mobile TV, arguing that it had to differentiate itself from its two bigger competitors. Hutch spent Euro 220 million on the network and supplying its own content could cost it another Euro 10 million a year -- but it will launch first. Hutch loves that first mover advantage. The need to provide its own content explains the purchase of a TV station at the end of last year. As a sidenote, Orange found that users of its mobile video service "snack" on the content, watching 2-3 minutes at a time, whereas trials with DVB-H technology showed that users stayed tuned for an average of 16 minutes.