We've been talking to a lot of people lately about the future of broadcasting and the potential for mobile to make a significant impact on current mainstream broadcast models and strategies.
This is, in fact, a hot topic around the sushi bars and martini clubs in Los Angeles as broadcast and film executives wonder about the future of the industry and whether there is really anything to worry about in terms of 'grassroots' media.
Our conclusion, and that of many in the business, is that mobile will continue to be a much-talked-about subject for some time, but the mobile media revolution will not happen overnight. Even when it does, it won't be much of a revolution in the general sense, since mobile media will consists of a relatively small piece of the entire entertainment industry – a situation that is similar to that of Apple Mac systems, which are slick and neat, but at the end of the day make up a very small portion of the entire computer industry. That's just the way it is.
The real benefit of mobile media – as we have always said – is its ability to open the broadcast world to a whole new universe of creators and consumers, as well as expand options for current entertainment consumers. The key is to develop really compelling and great content; associate that content with clever and unobtrusive advertising; and make use of reliable and robust distribution channels to get it from someone's mind to the masses.
As you may know, things are in the works to make all of this happen. Handset manufacturers lime Nokia and Samsung are aggressively sponsoring mobile media competitions and providing platforms to distribute some really great content. As an example, you should check out Samsung's Fresh Films competition (http://www.fresh-films.com/). While not unique, it is one of the better approaches to providing a voice for mobile media content creators.
Distributors are also doing their part to further the cause. A long-time veteran in this space is MobiTV, Inc., which launched it's mobile television network in late 2003 and has since built that to include more than four million subscribers. (Truth be told, we were involved in the launch of a little distribution effort on the Sprint network called mFlix, which has been described as the Sundance of mobile media. Of course, the mFlix subscriber base is a lot further south than four million, but at least it has a stake in the ground!)
MobiTV (www.mobitv.com) is available on more than 15 carrier networks and claims to have added a million or so subscribers over the past 10 months. Math is not our strong point, but these numbers tell us that something is happening out there that is pushing this whole mobile media movement along quite steadily.
MobiTV founder and president Paul Scanlon (close to InsideMobileMedia's editor's name, but no relation!) admits that viewers are also spending more time on clips and mobile video than ever before – amounting to about a 50 percent increase in 2008. He also says the timing has never been better for interactive advertising, voting, polling and mCommerce. Maybe, but we've heard that song and dance for quite a while so we'll be a little patient as the industry and movement continues to unfold.
Meanwhile, the continued charge of devices like the Apple iPhone 3G and other smart phone is driving mobile data revenues at a growth rate of 16%, which will inflate the numbers from $24 billion in 2007 to over $100 billion in 2017. This marks a substantial growth spurt over the same period about a year ago. The number of data subscribers is also expected to hit close to 250 million in the U.S. by 2017.
If these forecasts don't make for interesting conversations around the watering holes and conversation pits of Los Angeles, then I don't know what will. But, the good old entertainment industry seems secure for now, right?
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