Turner Broadcasting System Inc. is tapping Ericsson to shore up its mobile content distribution strategy, but don’t expect full video for a while.
Under the exclusive deal, Ericsson is developing TBS’s Internet, broadcast news and entertainment properties – including CNN International, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim material – for operators’ mobile multimedia environments. The first fruit of the collaboration, to be officially announced next week at the 3GSM World Congress, is a new CNN Mobile service for users initially in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America.
Ericsson will reformat the content as made-for-mobile offerings and will provide data mining/feedback services, content management and portal enablement. Intelligent software will enable devices to show only the content that is appropriate to the particular handset. TBS’s mobile operator partners can deliver the content through their own branded portals, or users can reach the CNN Mobile site via any device’s standard mobile Internet browser. Additional services and markets will be announced over the course of the year.
“We’ve been early investors in the mobile space … since 1996,” said Casey Harwood, senior vice president of digital media at TBS. “This is about taking those products to the next level. We are re-thinking how we produce content for the mobile phone.”
While “multimedia” is a byword of the launch lingo, video will be a small component of the offer to begin with. “This is a data-led offer initially,” said Harwood. “The root of it will be WAP applications and text-based news alerts, with an hourly ‘World News Now’ three-minute video update.” There will also be a searchable archive of news from the last 14 days, including on-demand video spots.
Harwood said the idea is to ease consumers into more advanced formats. “Every phone in the world can receive a text message,” he noted. “It’s a simple point of entry to the consumer, then you can upsell people to the more advanced applications from there.”
Part of this cautious approach is a function of available measurement for video deployments. TBS has, for instance, been involved in a number of mobile video broadcast trials, including within the United States, and Harwood said that while it’s clear there is an appetite for video, “the data we get back from operators is getting better, but not enough to really plan service launches around.” He added, “We don’t know who watches what for how long, and that’s one of the things Ericsson is going to help us measure.”
Ericsson www.ericsson.com
Turner Broadcasting System Inc. www.turner.com
