The Change Mariner

First Soap Opera for Mobile Phone

Yahoo! News:

The launch of TV's first-ever soap for the tiny mobile phone screen might not suit everyone's taste, but it is living proof that the TV and digital worlds are merging.

With this convergence due to transform the average consumer's entertainment fix, a record number of mobile-phone operators -- including heavy-hitters such as Vodafone, Nokia and Telefonica -- turned up in large numbers at this week's international MiPTV and MILIA trade shows.

Aside from ring tones and music, games, news and sports results are the current favourites of cell phone users, many of them children and younger adults. And now the race is on to attract new audiences, with the big strides achieved in video streaming to phones throwing up new opportunities.

"The quality of content, like video, is improving as are the handsets. It's a step change in the level of service," Vodafone's Graham Ferguson told a forum in this Riviera town.

The first soap-drama specifically made for mobile phones, called "Hotel Franklin," has just been launched by media giant News Corporation. The episodes last just one-minute because, said News Corp.'s Lucy Hood, this "seems to us to be the natural length" for phone viewers.

That time frame allows for enough character development and plot before leaving a hook at the end to get viewers to look at the next episode.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at April 5, 2004 09:40 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Area - Tech - Mobile Communications | Industry - Entertainment - TV | Industry - Telecommunications | Quadrant - Technological

M-Profits: Making Money from 3G Services
John Wiley & Sons

Amazon Price: $52.80

Introduction to 3G Mobile Communications, Second Edition
Artech House

Amazon Price: $99.00

IP for 3G: Networking Technologies for Mobile Communications
John Wiley & Sons

Amazon Price: $57.85

3G Wireless Networks
McGraw-Hill Professional

Amazon Price: $46.76