Juniper Research has predicted that the revenue from sports video clips and SMS-updates on mobile phones will double to US$1.3 billion in 2005. “Europe will continue to account for the bulk of revenues from such services in 2005 – 69% of the total – Asia and the US are both expected to experience a dramatic increase in service usage, with the US mobile sports market worth more than US$1 billion by 2009.”
Other findings include: the worldwide users of mobile sports services will increase to 210 million by 2009, with 120 million of those being in Asia; North American share of global mobile sports revenues to rise from 1% in 2004 to 26% in 2009; More than 380 million mobile users, or 21% of the global subscriber base, are expected to use some form of mobile infotainment service in 2005.
THQ Wireless has jumped on the sports/MLBAM bandwagon, announcing a deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to “develop and distribute one of the most unique offerings of officially licensed baseball-themed applications for mobile phones”. Most of this will be simply distribution, as individual developement deals have been parceled out to seperate developers, for example Jamdat obtaining the exclusive right to develop MLB branded games involving gameplay. Interesting offerings from THQ include a trivia game where people answer questions to get ‘bases’, to see how many runs they score, and “Baseball Fantasy Five”…
Related stories:
–Fox No Fan Of MLB’s Mobile Plans
–Cingular Offers Live BaseBall Audio
–Amp’d Mobile Sponsors Extreme Athletes
–Major League Baseball On Mobiles
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