Bob Schukai, VP of wireless and broadband at Turner Broadcasting, described a natural tension between broadcasters and mobile operators as “Godzilla versus King Kong”. Broadcasters have the content that operators need, and operators have the technology and expertise to deliver that content on a mobile platform. Schukai, who spent 18 years at Motorola, is adamant that broadcasters should not become MVNOs because the technological demands are too great.
— One of two reoccurring themes from this conference is that content providers feels that devices present the biggest limitations. Schukai said the burden of that falls to the operators because they sell the devices, but that things can’t be in improved in a vacuum so Turner talks to handset manufacturers and takes part in “every trial going”. “You’ve got to do this because you’ve go to see the experience. No one entity has all the answers.” The second persistent theme is the marketing issue of deliverability – making sure that consumers know which services are out there. “We’ve got to be a lot smarter about how we package these services, like having an on-screen button on news alerts that says ‘click here now for footage’.”
— Schukai said that the phone networks’ highest revenue service is usually the least complex – SMS – and that revenue decreases proportionately as services are more complex. But Al Russell, head of content and advanced messaging for Vodafone UK, said mobile TV annualises around the same as ringtones.
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.
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