Sprint and Verizon — two US mobile carriers which have had strict ‘walled-garden’ mobile content policies — have indicated they will (slowly) open up their service so their customers can get content from outside the carriers portal. Sprint is testing a premium SMS service with various partners, including Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.
Verizon has told content aggregators that it intends to open its network to off-portal content before the end of the year, according to the story.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent revelation by Vodafone that off-portal content accounts for 70% of its content revenues? “According to executives at QPass, a wireless transaction management firm, off-portal sales in the United States are beginning to explode…In the last year, (other) carriers have seen off-portal content sales grow at a compound annual rate of 410 percent. In the last six months, total off-portal sales activity skyrocketed 1,024 percent, with a month-over-month growth of 141 percent this past quarter alone”. The process is likely to begin with deals with big content producers such as music labels…
Related stories:
–Media Owners Call On OFT To Solve Off-Portal Pricing Issues
–Brands Reach Audience By Direct Mobile Content
–Breaking Out Of The Walled Garden
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