Sofia Digital and OpenBit at IBC 2007 in Amsterdam are demonstrating a digital rights management-based system that is designed for selling products on mobile television channels, according to the press release.
The release says:
“At this point the emphasis is on content and software which can be used on the mobile phone used for watching the mobile TV channel. What makes the offering so appealing is that the mobile TV channel viewers can literally with a push of a button purchase the content advertised.
“This offers great value for the advertisers who want to make fast sales in the clearly defined target group were they sports fans, music enthusiasts or business people….
“When digital content is being advertised on a mobile TV channel, the viewer can download the software on his/her mobile phone, if desired. The software can be made available for all mobile TV viewers via broadcast stream or it can be downloaded using cellular network.
“If the viewer wants to purchase the downloaded content all s/he needs to do is click the payment button. In addition to every major credit cards offered as a payment method, subscriber charging is possible in 70 mobile networks.”
Promising possibilities
The revenue models for mobile TV are in flux. It’s a dynamic time, to say the least, for trying to puzzle out how mobile TV should be priced.
Some mobile TV experts say the future will be monthly flat-rate subscription services. Some say it’s free TV paid for by commercials. Some say it’s a per-day or per-channel revenue model. Some talk about pre-roll, post-roll and “during-roll” commercials.
It’s obvious that a variety of pricing models will be offered, based not only on consumer desires, but also on content provider and cellular operator strategies. What’s not so obvious is what type of innovative techniques for selling products and services will succeed in conjunction with mobile TV.
Since the majority of cellular phones have small, low resolution screens, creating innovative sales is challenging. But as more phones are introduced specifically for mobile TV — with larger, higher resolution screens and dedicated navigation keys — more opportunities will arise.
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