Week of November 7, 2005

More Inroads For Mobile Video

Monday, November 7th, 2005

Not that long ago we mentioned that there has been much more activity at rolling out mobile video than mobile audio. More evidence out of the UK hit this week, as Channel 4 has announced that they will be providing a full channel on 3G networks of Vodaphone and Orange. The aggressive rollout will include free and easy access to the network's biggest hits until 2006.

Two Mobile Speed Bumps

Tuesday, November 8th, 2005

Two recent studies have pointed to bumps in the mobile content road. Both A.T. Kearney and NOP have looked at consumer perceptions of mobile content, and they reached similar conclusions:

People are worried about the cost of all the new mobile services. Only a small minority said they would even be willing to pay for extra video content on their phones at all.

Complexity is a deal breaker. Almost two-thirds of adults surveyed stated that when they have confronted mobile content problems on their phones, they gave up rather than contact anyone at the mobile company for help.

MTV Again Shows The Way

Wednesday, November 9th, 2005

We've regularly mentioned in this space how MTV truly gets the new media landscape and what it takes to win there. Further evidence can be found with how the company is handling aspects of its MTV Europe Awards show, which MTV will provide to mobile subscribers in Europe moments after the show ends. Content included will be red carpet performances, acceptance speeches, and performances.

AOL Drops MusicNet For MusicNow

Thursday, November 10th, 2005

It's not just the change of three letters, AOL, a long term partner with digital music service MusicNet, has dropped the service after purchasing MusicNow from Circuit City. The new service will be called AOL MusicNow. The move underlines the bullish future that companies are seeing for digital music subscription services, which Jupiter Media has predicted as eventually surpassing the download model of iTunes.

Sony PSP Sets Sights Higher

Friday, November 11th, 2005

Sony's portable play station (PSP) has to be one of the most heavily hacked and modified pieces of hardware over the past few years. With the right amount of knowledge, you can turn the PSP into everything from an MP3 player to a web browser to a mobile digital video player. Now comes word that Sony is making this process easier with the release of the PSP Media Manager, which will allow the PSP to be a full-service portable media player. Cost is $20 for the download and $30 for a packaged version.

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