Reiter's Mobile TV Report

Turner to launch "Super Deluxe" comedy channel for mobile, Web, cable

Turner Broadcasting in January 2007 is launching "Super Deluxe," a free 24-hour comedy channel with original programs + social networking features for wireless and other portable devices as well as online and from cable video on demand (VOD).

Turner's press release highlights the Web as the primary distribution channel rather than the other methods (such as wireless).

Super Deluxe is supported by advertisements and will be free -- at least online, I assume.  I wonder if cellular operators will offer it for free for any handset that's capable of receiving mobile TV.

I assume that, at best, Super Deluxe will be included as part of a paid mobile TV subscription package that bundles other channels, such as on Verizon Wireless' V CAST or Sprint's Mobile TV.

The content

Turner says its new network "will offer exclusive original comedy from both established and rising comedy stars, developed exclusively for the network and celebrating the artists' creative spirit, providing comedic talents a forum to showcase and share their own inspired concepts and performances.

"Each artist will have his/her own dynamic and personalized area featuring exclusive content, a blog and opportunities to promote appearances and projects or further customize their part of the network."

Super Deluxe will feature such programs as short films, sketches and continuing series'.

Viewer interactions

Here's what's especially interesting.  The press release says "community tools will allow fans to interact with artists and each other, adding an extra dimension of value for the consumer. 

"Through these tools, fans can express their own unique sense of humor and interact with artists and others by creating their own profiles, uploading their own videos, rating and sharing content, making comments, sending messages and more. 

"Fans can even join or create groups with other artists and users to share and discuss their favorite humorous topics, comedians or anything else that strikes their interest."

Mobile TV tie-in?

I wonder whether any specific cellular tie-ins will be promoted.  For example, it would be interesting for cellular operators to promote video uploads from camera phones to Super Deluxe.

However, don't expect social networking capabilities for cellular, according to an article in The Hollywood Reporter.

The article says "Turner is in negotiations with distributors all over the digital-media landscape that would put Super Deluxe sans social networking functions on cable VOD, mobile phones, portable media players and video game consoles."

Demographics

The Hollywood Reporter notes that Super Deluxe will be geared towards men 18 to 34 years old "with a mix of live-action and animated material that won't skimp on profanity and toilet humor."

There could be some "informal collaboration" between Super Deluxe and the Adult Swim programs on Turner's Cartoon Network, The Hollywood Reporter says.  The demographics are similar and Adult Swim features older teen/adult oriented content.

Verizon Wireless offers snippets from Adult Swim and the Cartoon Network on V Cast.  Verizon used to charge to watch individual episodes of Adult Swim.

Poor fare

Adult Swim on V CAST used to cost about $1.99 or $2.99; I don't remember exactly.  Now it's free on V Cast but there are only excerpts from the animations, not complete episodes. 

The Cartoon Network also offers only excerpts from cartoons.  After the excerpts from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim there are brief ads exhorting you to watch more on regular cable. 

I assume V Cast subscribers didn't want to pay the relatively high prices for Adult Swim.  I don't blame them; it wasn't worth the price for a few minutes. 

The free excerpts are worth what you pay for them.  Maybe.  For kids.  Young kids.  Who have nothing better to do.

Advertising's role

The Hollywood Reporter says, "Marketers will be heavily integrated into the site with pages of their own alongside users and performers.  Although Turner declined to specify which advertisers have signed up for Super Deluxe, they are expected to deliver entertaining videos in addition to pre-roll and post-roll spots."

So, advertisers may post their own videos just like viewers.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

Switzerland tests DVB-H in Berne with 200 customers through January

Swisscom Mobile, Swisscom Broadcast, Orange and Sunrise are testing the DVB-H mobile television protocol with 200 users in Berne, Switzerland through the end of January 2007, according to an item in Cellular-News.

Nokia's N92 mobile TV phone, one of the handsets of choice for DVB-H tests, will be employed in the Berne trials.

"The TV channels are broadcast via a DVB-H radio network.   The mobile communications network can be used in parallel as a feedback channel for the exchange of access data or for interactive services," the article says.

Italy began commercial DVB-H service in June 2006, and DVB-H tests are underway in Belgium, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and Poland, the article says.   Tests also are beginning in the Republic of Ireland.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

A wireless multimedia news future: Text, audio, video, RSS, alerts

From I Want Media I saw an article in Folio magazine where the founding editor of Men's Health and editorial director of the Meredith Corp. ponders the future of print media with wireless communications being able to provide news immediately.

Mike Lafavore said during a Folio conference in New York that consumers on average, per day, spend 2.5 hours online and 34 minutes reading magazines.   He noted that the "magazine" business isn't just printing magazines on paper but providing information.

The Folio article reports, "In the next five years, according to Lafavore, mobile digital devices will be the norm, where consumers will be able to carry a flexible, interactive touch screen, capable of downloading magazines to the palm of their hands with the touch of a button.

"'How do we compete with instant information?' he asked the audience.   'Readers can decide how they want to receive their information and if we're not willing to get that information to them the way they want it, they'll get it somewhere else.'"

Wireless multimedia future

For sure the wireless future includes Harry Potter types of multimedia "newspapers."   But we need another word besides newspaper and, in some ways, it would offer beyond what I've seen in Harry Potter movies.

(I haven't read the Harry Potter books.  I will.  I want to.  But there are so many other books on my shelves begging to be read.)

The multimedia newspaper (or whatever you want to call it) could be placed in the mobile television section of the cellular phone, although it goes beyond videos.   It would include text articles, audio files, podcasts, videos and appropriate weblog RSS feeds -- all related to individual articles.

Cellular multimedia integration

Yes, there certainly are Web sites that already include many, if not all, of these features.

But we haven't seen this type of integration with cellular.   Each article would have a "home" page that could lead with a text article and a photo and links to audio files/podcasts and videos about the article.

Alternatively, the "home" page would begin first with a video and then include the other information.   Perhaps the user could select what medium should be available as the "lead":   Text, photo, audio, video.   

In addition, there could be an "alerts" box to check to get breaking news (text, audio, video) about each article.

Getting closer

All the pieces are in place, both on the Web and cellular.   We'll need more stuff for each article -- videos, podcasts, etc. -- but that's not a technological challenge.

It's an editorial resources/financial challenge -- definitely not a minor consideration 

What's left is the cellular integration of the sum of the parts.   That's not a trivial task, but it's far from impossible. 

And, yes, there are a variety of operating systems and handsets with different capabilities that must be considered.

Interfaces, hardware

A good user interface is required for cellular, of course.  And for such a multimedia news application, the larger the screen the better. 

An Ultra Mobile PC, for example, makes a great multimedia newspaper platform, assuming good battery life and lower hardware costs.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

Cellular operators should offer free mobile TV promotion, and more

Cellular operators offering mobile television programs should consider using one of Sirius Satellite Radio's marketing techniques for its new Web-based Sirius Internet Radio (SIR) service.

For two days, October 25 - 26, Sirius allowed consumers to listen online to SIR for free.  Sirius marketing emphasized being able to listen to shock-jock Howard Stern's shows (that I find moronic) but there also were some 75 radio programs offered for free for the two days. 

I signed up and listened to many of the programs.  The quality seemed pretty good, and I used a Verizon Wireless 1xEV-DO PC Card modem for streaming the shows.  (I think it's illegal, according to Verizon's conditions of use, to use EV-DO service to stream programs.  Oh well.  I was using a test account provided by Qualcomm.....and I'm returning the card.)

I'd like to see cellular operators offer their mobile TV -- via cellular phones and/or online -- for free for a day or two to enable consumers to watch what's available.  Certainly there are issues that need to resolved, both from a technological and digital rights management standpoint. 

Poor marketing

But cellular operators haven't done a very good job of enabling consumers to learn about what's being transmitted.  You may view brief "previews" of mobile TV channels on your handset, but (1) many of the previews don't adequately highlight what is available (frankly, some of the previews are awful in that regard) and (2) if you don't have a mobile TV-capable phone you can't watch them.

If you go online, the mobile TV section of cellular operators' Web sites is typically rather poor.  You aren't able to read everything about the various programs that are available and there are few, if any, video highlights of shows.

Anyone should be able to see a complete list of all the channels (and the programs offered by each channel) on a cellular operator's Web site.  Ideally, you also should be able to watch a few minutes of current videos from every channel. 

In other words, any potential subscriber or subscriber who wants to get detailed information about what's available won't get it from a cellular operator.

TV Guide:  Mobile Edition

If the operators aren't willing to adequately market mobile TV, perhaps a third party will.  I've written previously that a "TV Guide: Mobile Edition" -- that includes listings of mobile TV shows as well as feature articles about mobile TV programs, the performers/directors/writers, technology, etc. -- would be a useful and, I believe, profitable undertaking. 

I've suggested this to TV Guide.  I guess we'll see if anything happens.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

Down but not out

I've had some e-mail and computer problems for several days and haven't posted much on my weblogs.

But the e-mail problem has been resolved (I changed my e-mail hosting service) and the computer problem is being resolved. So it's back to posting soon!

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

T-Mobile to test Hiwire's DVB-H system in Las Vegas this year

T-Mobile is slated to test Hiwire's 700 MHz DVB-H mobile television system when it's launched (also as a test) in Las Vegas by the end of this year, according to an article in Wireless Week.

T-Mobile is working with Hiwire for testing purposes only.  The current agreement doesn't call for any further ventures, the article says. 

Hiwire says it will be able to use three or four different cellular phones for the tests because it can capitalize on DVB-H handsets employed in many tests around the world.

As a GSM operator, it's no surprise that T-Mobile will first test DVB-H, rather than Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV system.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

ROK FreeBe TV: Worth almost what you pay for it

ROK Entertainment, a major independent mobile television aggregator that offers subscription services, has launched a free mobile TV service -- FreeBe TV (see below).  The service is available in the United States on a variety of WAP-enabled phones, notes the company's press release.

I registered for the service and watched it on an LG Fusic phone, that Sprint has given me to test as part of its Ambassador Program.  My conclusion:  The service is free, and it's worth almost as much as you're paying for it.

FreeBe TV offers 14 categories of programs, and most of them are low quality, black and white cartoons and movies that are decades old.  But wait, there's more!

Junk and some, well, classics

You can watch such films as "Billy the Kid Returns," the "Flash Gordon" series from 1940, "Captain Scarlet," "The Memphis Belle," "King of the Zombies," "Hercules and the Moon Men," "Zorro and the Golden God," a selection of old cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, Felix the Cat and Betty Boop, and some so-called Xtreme Sportz that feature dull clips of water skiing and surfboarding.

FreeBe TV also broadcasts some decades-old black and white films that I guess you could call classics, such as W.C. Fields in "The Dentist," "The Little Shop of Horrors" (no, not the color musical), "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Phantom of the Opera" (no, not the Andrew Lloyd Webber version) and a couple of Sherlock Holmes films.

There are two channels with original content.  "Monkey News" features a variety of computer animated monkeys reading the news.  A user generated content channel, "You Made It," is awful.

Watchable?

Perhaps a five-year-old would find "Monkey News" interesting.  And if you haven't seen some of the classic films, maybe you'd want to see W.C. Fields or "Little Shops of Horrors."

But the LG Fusic has a poor screen and many of the black and white movies and cartoons are so blurry (in part because of rapid movement), dark and pixelated that viewing them isn't very pleasant.  A phone with a higher-resolution screen might help.

The programs are streamed, so you're lucky if you catch them at the beginning.  Usually you won't.  They loop continuously, so if you were riveted to the screen watching the last part of "Hercules and the Moon Men," you can wait until it quickly starts again at the beginning.

Comparing with MSpot

As a comparison of video quality, I clicked on MSpot Movies, that's available as an extra cost channel from Sprint.  MSpot features old movies, cartoons and TV series.  I watched "Little Shop of Horrors," although the quality didn't seem to be much better than FreeBe TV's.

However, MSpot also offers other films -- that generally are in color, even the older ones, such as classic cartoons, "Alice in Wonderland" (that's actually a good classic film) -- and the quality is far superior to FreeBe TV.  Color makes a difference.

Also, MSpot divides the movies into scenes for a video-on-demand experience rather than live streaming.  You may start an MSpot movie at the beginning, watch a few scenes, stop watching and then go back to watching the next scene.

The future

ROK TV's press release says it will add two new channels in the next few weeks, "Mixcast TV, a global hip-hop and urban lifestyle channel and MavTV, an irreverent network targeting men 18 - 60 delivering selected promotional content."  I wonder if MavTV will be just an infomercial.

To conclude:  As it stands today, FreeBe TV is awful.  I wish it weren't so.  I'm a huge fan of mobile television TV, as you regular readers know. 

But unless FreeBe TV improves, it will be a poster child for what mobile TV shouldn't be.  Make it better or kill it and market the paid channels.

To be fair....

To be fair, ROK TV offers more than two dozen other channels in the U.S. for $.99 each.  I haven't watched these, although one of them is "Monkey News."  The company also offers mobile TV in several other countries, with more on the way.

Also, one of ROK TV's claims to fame is its ability to transmit over 2.5G networks, not just 3G.  (I watched FreeBe TV on Sprint's 3G 1xEV-DO network.)

Almost eight million Americans use camera phones to capture video

Almost eight million Americans -- three percent of U.S. cellular subscribers -- use their camera phones to capture videos, with the Motorola RAZR V3 series of cellular phones as the most popular, according to the market research firm Telephia.

Telephia says this number increases to six percent for U.S. subscribers who "recently purchased a new handset, revealing a rapid upward trend."  This is based on purchases within the past six months.

Motorola's RAZR V3 series is the most popular with 21 percent using it for videos, according to Telephia.  This is followed by six percent using Nokia's 6101 series, and three percent each using the Motorola E815 series, Sony Ericsson Z525 and LG VX8100 series.

Europeans take more videos

Not surprisingly, European cellular users take more videos than Americans, Telephia reports.  The top users are in Spain with 15 percent of cellular subscribers taking videos, followed closely by Italian subscribers at 14 percent, U.K. users at 12 percent, Swedish users at ten percent and France and Germany both at nine percent.

Canada beats the U.S. by one percent, with four percent of total cellular subscribers using their handsets for videos.

I'd be interested in learning how many/what percentage of U.S. camera phones are capable of recording videos.

Showtime launches WAP portal to promote video clips, other mobile content

CBS-owned cable television network Showtime Networks is launching a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) portal that offers videos from such programs as "Dexter," "Weeds," "The Underground," "Sleeper Cell," "The L Word" and Showtime Championship Boxing, according to the press release.

The availability of the content will be based upon a cellular subscriber's cellular operator and phone capabilities.  Content also includes wallpapers for phones. 

Robert Hayes, the senior vice president and general manager of digital media at Showtime, says in the press release, "Mobile has become an increasingly important component of our overall program promotion and marketing campaigns.

"It offers us an excellent subscriber acquisition and program sampling opportunity on the expanding mobile platform."

Indeed, it's a rare executive at a major television network or production company who is not thinking about how to leverage cellular networks to distribute content.

"Dexter" promotion tie-in"

Not coincidentally, I assume, the WAP portal ties-into a multimedia marketing campaign for "Dexter" -- "everyone's favorite serial killer," as Showtime promotes the show.

Cellular users may send a Short Code -- SHOTV or 74688 -- from their phones to receive more information about and content based on the show.

The portal is designed by Mobile Streams.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]

London gallery shows four "Perspectives of London" videos shot with Nokia N93

Nokia-sponsored videos by four filmmakers using the Nokia N93 camera phone are on display in London at the Architecture Foundation's Yard Gallery, according to an entry by LetsGoDigital.

The "Perspectives of London" features videos by Jefferson Hack, founder of Dazed & Confused, Another Magazine and Another Man; Naomi Cleaver, designer, writer and TV presenter; Tom Dixon, creative director of Habitat, design company Artek and his design company Tom Dixon; and Nigel Coates, the head architectural professor at the Royal College of Art.

The GSM-based N93 incorporates a 3.2 megapixel camera phone with a Carl Zeiss lens that can shoot videos at 30 frames per second.  It also includes a 3x optical zoom. 

The four films

The films are:

"Jefferson Hack - Dérive film:  Jefferson's perspective is about movement -- he sees the city and the people in it as always-moving.

"To reflect this he has chosen to film Dérive -- capturing the way Les Parkours reclaim the city by offering a way for anybody, regardless of status or race to express themselves.

"Part dance, part marshal art, but in its most basic form -- running and jumping through the city in a fluid and controlled way -- freedom of movement and self expression in its most pure sense.

"Naomi Cleaver - London from Horseback film:  Observing the duality of high tech and low tech Naomi seeks to recreate the perspectives of the past in the midst of the present by filming solely from horseback, up until a century ago the main form of transport around the city's streets.

"The resulting film is a constantly moving vista, from a once common elevation, that also captures the unique reactions to a rogue horsewoman in modern London.

"Nigel Coates - Full Circle film:  Nigel Coates has remained most true to the brief.

"In the search for the highest freely accessible spot in London, he settled on the 4th floor terrace at Tate Modern to make his film, Full Circle.

"With its single take, it explores the contrast between the expansive view over the Thames and the London skyline, and the terrace as a confined viewing platform or theatre box.

"As the camera rotates through a progressively upward spiral it passes from long-shot to studied close-up, back and forth from viewer to the viewed.

"Tom Dixon - The Mirrored Cube film:  Drawn towards the current phenomenon of CCTV cameras and the notion of the world as a stage -- regardless of our awareness -- Tom designed a one-way mirrored cube through which he filmed London.

"Placed in a variety of public locations around London, the film highlights the different aspects of human nature, as Tom watches people watching themselves -- preening, showing off and even pulling out their nose hairs."

Exhibition details

The exhibit will run from October 6 to October 21 and also includes a short video -- takne by the N93 -- about making the four films as well as photos from the N93.

The films also may be viewed on Nokia's Nseries Web site.  However, I can't seem to find where those films are.

Although I've lambasted the cellular industry -- especially the cellular operators -- for the awful job they've done marketing (or not marketing) the many ways to use camera phones, Nokia certainly has been doing its part around the world to promote its Nseries' camera and video capabilities.

Unfortunately....

Unfortunately, the N93 isn't available from any U.S. cellular operator so you'll have to pay a lot of money to purchase an unlocked model that will work on, for example, Cingular's GSM network.

Also unfortunately, I believe the N93 operates on four cellular frequencies, but only one is used in the U.S.   So coverage could be a big problem unless a U.S. carrier is willing to offer the phone and Nokia enables U.S. frequencies.

So far, U.S. operators haven't been especially eager to sell the Nseries, Nokia's high end, expensive handsets that company executives call "multimedia computers" rather than "mere" phones.

[Sent via TypePad wireless e-mail with RIM BlackBerry 8700g]