From Techdirt Wireless I see U.K. cellular operator O2 is teaming with Uranimis Consulting to offer free videos for cellular subscribers, but the catch is the service is advertiser supported.
According to the article in netimperative.com, the first offering will be a "Warner Brothers' commercial promoting the DVD 'Torque', streamed to mobiles immediately after a "Motel Girls" video feature from IPC lads' magazine Loaded throughout July and August."
I have no idea what the sentence above actually means since I have never heard of Torque, Motel Girls or Loaded. Hmmm...I just did a Google search for "Loaded" and found out it's definitely not the type of magazine to which I'd subscribe! I wouldn't see Torque, either.
(I'm definitely not a prude, but I am a snob. I don't care what the plebians do for entertainment as long as I'm not inconvenienced!)
Business model
As part of the O2 free video service, advertisements to the handset will be changed eight times during the month-long promotion.
Mike Masnick of Techdirt Wireless notes that typical 30-second commercials aren't going to work. Mike writes, "Mobile video on the go needs to be flexible in terms of the amount of time it takes, because no one is planning on catching a full TV show on their phone.
"They're only going to watch at points when they're stuck somewhere with no TV and have a free moment. Sticking commercials into that time doesn't seem like it will attract that much interest."
Does video make sense?
I know the jury is still out debating whether video on phones will be successful. I think video is inevitable and although not all services will succeed (Motel Girls?!), video will become a standard part of cellular service.
I've been playing around with Sprint PCS' new 1.3 megapixel camera phone, the PM-8920, as I've been writing and moblogging.
I don't recommend the handset for its image quality, but it's a nice phone otherwise. I've been watching two video services offered by Sprint: 1KTV and RealOne.
Pleasant diversions
I've been watching video news reports, movie reviews and other programs. The "video" isn't continuous streaming but is like a slide show where the graphics change every five seconds or so and are synchronized with the audio.
I wouldn't need the video to get much of the information transmitted, but the graphics are a nice add-on. 1KTV and RealOne cost several dollars a month each for unlimited content.
Both services offer pleasant diversions and could sometimes be useful, such as listening to movie reviews when you're wandering around and looking for good movie or want to see sports highlights.
Commercials
Would I watch a brief (ten-second?) commercial to watch a free video? Quite possibly.
Advertiser-supported videos also could be a way for cellular users to view videos and determine whether they'd want to subscribe to a commercial-free video service for a monthly fee.
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