DMI: Panel - Next Generation Mobile Media Consumption

2:06 - Charles Golvin, moderator, introducing panelists.

2:07 - Golvin: Let me take a moment to give you some background on the mobile industry.

2:07 - Original question when the wireless networks were built - What’s the killer app? At first, it was voice. But that is quickly changing.

2:08 - Forrester data, mobile subs do way more than just talk. Txting, email, weather, scores, news, watching video is growing. Across the board, consumers are adapting media and applications onto mobile devices.

2:09 - As we think about what’s coming in the future in the mobile environment, coverage is darn good. Showing voice coverage maps for cellular providers. Consumers expect to get a signal almost anywhere and be able to make a call.

2:10 - But what you need for media and entertainment is a broadband network and there the coverage has a ways to go (showing more maps with les coverage). If you look at mobile TV, its even worse (showing sparse MediaFLO coverage map)

2:11 - In the next two years…new spectrum, as carriers committed $32 billion for mew spectrum; new technologies like WiMAX or LTE that have greater capacity and more bandwidth with IP at their core; consumer behavior continues to shift to the ‘net; pressure on new ways to finance the delivery of content to the consumer (like Amazon Kindle where cost of delivery embedded into its cost).

2:14 - Connectivity extends experiences. Slide showing Nokia 810, Garmin GPS, Nintendo DS, iPod touch. All of these experiences that are transiently connected are migrating to devices that are connected all of the time.

2:15 - Golvin: How does the data match with your experience?

2:15 - Smeltzer: You can get a pretty decent mobile TV experience over the data connection, so you don’t need mediaFLO to be built out to deliver that. We try to exploit the curve. We started with txt messages, keep on pushing forward as connectivity and device capabilities get better.

2:17 - McLeod: Limelight has a global platform that is a great foundation for building mobile apps on. Make it easier for publishers to deliver content to mobile consumers. We try to take advantage of the form factor for the device, we can detect the device and optimise the delivery for the capability for that device. Resize images on the fly. We can take advantage of the network or the network condition - and deliver the best possible experience for that network condition.

2:20 - Kenney: Verve has a platform for local media. We believe the social web is ultimately local - work with newspapers like the Associated Press, others. We see users of the mobile web is 25-35 year olds - and people with smart phones learn how to use them very quickly. They are accessing local content. Its not just YouTube videos anymore.

2:22 - Karnes: Volo delivers and tracks metrics all the way down to the device. The technology convergence on the device has led to fragmentation of media consumption. More media consumed in more places. Now we need to get to the right monetization mix.

2:24 - Golvin: I talked before about faster networks. To what extend do you see network improvements, or the absence of those features, an impediment to moving content into the medium?

2:25 - Smeltzer: We view the handset as an incremental touch point to the Internet, and it needs to be in our core competency. We have been trying to publish at the rate in which the consumer can consume it, starting with txt messages and now moving to video. We are getting many millions of uniques per month of people visiting our mobile sites, and are generating billions of page views.

2:27 - Golvin: There are significant challenges that these new networks bring, like a base station that previously has a T1 connection now needs a fiber connection to handle gigabits of traffic.

2:28 - McLeod: Yes, but its an incremental shift, evolutionary. The technology is already there to deliver rich mobile experiences on the current infrastructure, With 4G networks coming, it just means more capacity to deliver a rich experience. But you will still have the volatility of how that connection is affected to the mobile user. There are 1000s of different ways a connection is affected in a mobile enviroment that aren’t there in wireless. And that still needs to be addressed, a challenge for the ecosystem.

2:30 - Golvin: If your most realistic point of view, when customers ask you about addressible market, what is it?

2:33 - Kenney: Great question. The advice we give to local media is that they need to get in the market today, but we try to set practical, realistic roadmaps. Look for small, incremental growth - a stage process. Miami Herald, largest customer, growing 10-15%. The end goal for us would be to effectively sell local advertising themselves.

2:34 - Karnes: Volo talks about the audience being on the move, whether its a social site, set-top, gaming site. Its very important and get it to all of those different screens to reach those users. Get the metrics back so you can learn where to invest, and how to monetize. Discussing Volo technology that can measure usage across various social properties.

2:38 - Golvin: Could you talk about FOX and 24, and what you learned for Prison Break?

2:39 - Smelzer: The mobisodes were cool and clever, but people didn’t want to see a 1-minute episode with other actors. They wanted Kiefer Sutherland. Consumers want live - Congressional hearings on steroids, white bronco chase. People don’t want original content that’s custom for mobile. They want what they see online to be what they get on TV. Whether its news, sports, entertainment, that is a valuable lesson.

2:41 - Golvin: You are working with AP. What are they learning after the basics of breaking news? What’s the next step?

2:42 - Kenney: On-boarded about 500 newspapers across the country to our mobile news network. What we’ve found is that consumers want to be in the know, no matter where they are. Once we acquire a customer into the application, we found they become heavy customers right away. The imemdiacy of the news is compelling and addicting. Usage goes from 20 pages/month to 60 pages/month — from 2 visits to 10 visits a month. Local is driving 20% of our traffic because people want to know what is going on around them. Movies drives 10% of all traffic - times, reviews, trailers.

2:46 - Golvin: What’s the rate of change in mindset for the carriers? Have they been enlightened?

2:47 - Smelzer: Yes. They are getting it. Especially T-Mobile and the G1 launch.

2:48 - McLeod: The mobile operator has valuable data and they don’t just want to be a pipe. So there’s a real opportunity to build a whole product - if you know a user is playing golf, and they are viewing weather on their phone, and its going to rain, you can target them based not just on demographics but on context.

2:49 - Kenney: The carrier model is changing drastically. They are realizing they are a data company at the end of the day. They have huge assets and if they learn how to mine their data well, with their analytical data , they can be a great partner.

2:51 - Golvin: Cool mobile media experience?

2:51 - Karnes: IPhone

2:51 - Kenney: Sprint with Microsoft voice search

2:51 - McLeod: HTC Touch Diamond

2:51 - Smelzer: GPS trail tracker.

2:51 - Golvin: iPhone remote

2:53 - Audience Q+A

2:55 - Could you address formats for mobile?

2:56 - McLeod: Predominantly its 3GPP, but you have to also match codecs with device. High end, you can do H.264; mass market do a lower quality codec.

2:57 - Thank you.

Tags: DM Innovation Forum

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 2:06 pm and is filed under dmi2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.