@ NATPE 2006: MVNO Not For Everyone

The setting: a “think tank” panel with the title “Digital Strategies: Evolve and Prosper” featuring four senir digital media and entertainment execs and one programmer.
— The lone programmer was Keith Hindle from FremantleMedia Enterprises Ltd. of American Idol fame. (One amusing moment — when Hindle insisted the correct web site address was AmericanIdol.com, not idolonfox.com The former redirects to the latter.) Hindle and another panelist, FIM President Ross Levinsohn, are among those from the two companies looking at ways to make the most of AI across platforms. One thing they can’t do: charge for landline phone calls in the U.S. the way they do in most other AI countries. “We can’t monetize it and I lose sleep over it every day,” he said. “There is no premium landline mechanism that’s viable in the U.S.” In several markets, Fremantle makes more from telephony than from the network for production of the show.
— Steve Wadsworth, president of Walt Disney Internet Group, carefully described Disney’s MVNO strategy, explaining that the phone first and foremost is a utility, “not a content delivery device.” (He also spoke about Disney’s targeted MVNO content plans.) News Corp. isn’t going the MVNO route. Levinsohn’s take: “We’re not a utility. I don’t believe we should be a utility. … I seriously have thought of taking my phone or Treo and smashing it against the wall and, as a content company, that is not where I think we shouild be.”
Our NATPE Mobile++ coverage is sponsored by Nellymoser

Comments have been disabled for this post