The article focuses (although not exclusively) on NBC’s efforts. This fall NBC will offer a variety of TV offshoots for the Web, cellular phones and Apple iTunes.
Programs for cellular phones will be available for free, assuming you subscribe to your cellular operator’s video package. NBC will include advertisements, but the type/mix of banner ads and video commercials hasn’t been decided yet, the WSJ reports.
NBC “Black Donnellys” offshoot
One show with Web and cellular offerings will be the "The Black Donnellys," a new show about organized crime.
“There will be Webisodes with the show's narrator divulging the history of the Donnelly family. There's also a blog from the executive producers focused on putting the show together,” the article says.
One of the leaders in cellular phone programs is News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox that established Fox Interactive Media to develop and coordinate these efforts.
Sprint TV “Prison Break”
In addition to creating cellular-only “mobisodes” of the TV show “24,” Fox is developing “Prison Break,” a series exclusively for cellular, the article notes and a detailed press release in April says.
The show is on Sprint TV and since I’m testing two Sprint Samsung phones (a900 and a920), I checked to see if it was available. Yep, there are 12 “Prison Break” mobisodes (see left) under the Fox menu, that also includes an X-Men trailer. So I watched the first mobisode of "Prison Break" on the a900 and took a few photos.
Interestingly — and no coincidence, I assume — the first shot of the first episode features a woman staring at a Sprint camera phone and looking an MMS picture message that might set the tone for series (see left). A guy is in prison and he wrote that he didn’t do it and needs the woman’s help.
I watch very few TV programs. In fact, the only show I watched regularly was "The West Wing" but that, alas, ended yesterday. The first mobisode of "Prison Break" looked pretty good and the quality over Sprint's 1xEV-DO network was just fine.
sidi_gramllaw@juno.com
Posted by: Sid | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 07:22 PM
Mobilize.org is launching a new campaign in response to Congress’ attempt to censor the communication of our generation. We have created the action alert below and built a website, www.mobilize.org/SOS. We are hoping to get as much grassroots action as possible around this important issue, especially from the online community.
Breaking News:
Legislation introduced this week will ban social networking, even sites used for educational and professional opportunities. What’s next? HR5319 will censor the communication of our generation and tell us who we can talk to, when and how. Tell Congress that social networking is a movement that we built, a movement that we are going to fight for.
Visit www.mobilize.org/SOS, take action, tell your friends and get mad.
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The bill blocks the use of these sites in public libraries, which is for many, the only access that they have to a computer. Our hope is to be able to amend the bill to take these facts into consideration. We agree that there need to be safeguards put in place for "sexual predators" and any of other crimes that might occur because of the accessibility of information on these sites, but to ban them in schools (including using school computers afterschool) and public libraries, is for many - banning social networking.
Posted by: Mobilize.org | Monday, May 15, 2006 at 03:27 PM