Successful mobile content, we keep hearing, needs to be made for mobile. Endemol has produced a series of successful mobile projects and Michiel de Gooijer, head of mobile TV and video and Endemol’s business development manager, said more and more of the indie company’s mobile TV income will come from tailor-made packages. Endemol has already done several deals including with H3G in Italy and with Orange in France generating what he says are “very, very big numbers”. In 2005, the infamous Big Brother brand clocked up six million viewing minutes between one million people in Australia, Italy and the UK. “We’re very proud of it and what it has done for our company – the uprising of digital media gives us the opportunity to be commissioned customers we traditionally didn’t work with.” Endemol’s traditional client base is with broadcasters, but on the back of its success in the digital market the company is developing more made for mobile and made for web content. “I think a large piece of our mobile TV and video income will be derived from tailor made, and from smart repackaging of our existing back catalogue.”
— Four types of mobile content: He categorises Endemol’s mobile content as simulcasts, spin-offs, back-catalogue work and made-for-mobile projects.
Simulcasts, in the case of Big Brother, proved more popular than two-to-three minute highlights. The most exciting aspect is that this is not traditional TV – it’s a whole new medium where the most popular material was supplemental to the TV show.
Star Academy in France is a good example of a spin-off product. “We publish extra auditions which were not shown on the internet or on the TV show and we did a behind the scenes, interview with the director of the programme, the cameraman and so on. Not rocket science, but it’s extremely popular and does really well.” During the last series in 2005, Endemol partnered with Apple on a behind-the-scenes video podcast through iTunes that recorded very large numbers in just a few weeks. “The highlights and other footage that was already on the web and TV did OK, but the special did much better, like the behind-the-scenes Star Academy clips.” Another example of spin-offs are the Totally Frank mobisodes that Endemol worked on for Channel 4. They used the same script writers as the TV show, producing two-to-three minute episodes only available on mobile. Every time, he says, made-for-mobile content is always more successful than re-appropriated TV content.
Another source of material is the back catalogue. Endemol will shortly release a mobile channel called Home Video Junk which repackages archive home video footage and is fronted by two Beavis & Butthead-type animated aliens. “The content of traditional home videos is pretty corny, but by having edgy comments and these funny characters commenting, it makes it much more appealing for 3G users.”
Made-for-Mobile: De Gooijer’s pet project has been Get Close To
This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.
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