@ CTIA: Content Providers Cite Much The Same Problems, See The Same Opportunities As Operators

Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) mobile content strategists “think 900 numbers are going to be really big,” joked Bernard Gershon, SVP of ABC News Digital Media at the content provider panel of the State of Mobile Content Mini-Conference at CTIA. The panel followed the earlier panel of operator representatives, offering the perspective from the other side of the coin — though the panel cited many of the same obstacles and opportunities. The content providers want to grow their off-deck business, through sales and advertising, just like the operators; they cite discoverability and ease of use as a major problem, just like the operators.

“We need a better way of selling content,” said Howie Singer, Warner Music’s VP of strategic technology. “We need a better way to bundle content together and to make it easier for customers to find it.” Gershon added, “Part of the problem is there’s so much content, and training people to discover the content and access it.”

The future of DRM and locked-down services: Adam Ritter, the wireless VP of MLB Advanced Media said that DRM will remain very important for subscription-based services, such as its live baseball streams. CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile EVP Cyriac Roeding raised the interesting point that the discussion shouldn’t necessarily be about DRM, but rather how best to monetize content: “The key thing for us isn’t to be overly protective of our content, but to monetize it. As long as we can find ways to put advertising next to it, we’re happy campers.”

On mobile advertising: The content providers were much more sanguine about the prospects of ad-supported content than their colleagues at the operators, perhaps because it’s somewhat easier for them to implement advertising and use it to monetize their content than it is for operators to figure out how to enable and take a cut from off-deck providers’ advertising. Roeding said one big recent change in mobile advertising is that some types of inventory — for instance, text-based mobile web ads — are frequently selling out. He said that CBS Sports generated 30 million mobile page views in September, up almost three times from a year earlier, illustrating the large amounts of inventory that are being generated.

Cultural differences in the American market: Roeding said that a recent trip to Korea gave him the opportunity to observe how people there consume mobile content, and in particular, how much of it. On a subway trip, he saw people using mobile TV, surfing the mobile web, paying for things with their mobile, and more. His insight on what this means for the US mobile content market: “We need more subways in the US, and that would probably solve our problems.”

Our CTIA conference coverage is sponsored by Cellfish.

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