Mobile pizza

Red Button = Red Herring?

A very interactive seminar organised by Frank Boyd. Good speakers and competent audience.

Here are a few short notes. Comments will follow.

Dan Campbell - MTV head of interactive

MTV tried it, but nobody used it. Won awards, but after 2 years (not that long) still had no business model = have moved away.
From their research: kids may have TV in background, but are not 10ft - they are on IM = MTV needs to be on the PC, next to the "Holy Trinity".

Holy Trinity: IM + Google + YouTube

For MTV, IM is where the audience is. Mobile is more personal and has a price attached to it. So, as the argument goes, they won't use it.

Scott Gronmark - Scott Gronmark Associates

Great perspective on the iTV's history, being former head of interactive at the BBC.

"iTV is seen as the drawling grandma in the attic"

His view: he thinks it still has validity, but mostly for the BBC and possibly the other large broadcasters.

Given the 8.2M users on Sky, red button is worth £13M/year in advertising = too little.
It achieves 10% response in programming (impressive). <.5% on advertising (not so good).

So it will play a role in the new media space, but is unlikely to become significantly bigger than it has already been. Broadband is where iTV is.

Marc Goodchild - BBC Factual&Learning

iTV came with the promise to provide 2-way in the same way new media do levels:
1- more info off the linear programme, 24/7
2- multicasting (e.g Wimbledon)
3- extras.. as with DVDs
4- different viewing experience, creating a relationship with the TV

Why it hasn't worked:
- BBC dominated the market
- Too much focus on the technology

What has worked:
- very creative use of the medium within programming
- E.g. 'How to sleep better' - a documentary that does what is says on the tim, where they switched between 2 linear channels to provide a personalised interactive experience. Interactive viewers could take a profiling test and get a slightly personalised experience (their personal score is shown on screen and they see portions of the video stream most relates to their results. Nice.

The BBC are experimenting with mobile as a way of delivering iTV.

Dale Herigstad - Schematic inc.

The mobile experience of TV is exploding in the States.
EA Sports - live video fed into a games consolle. Interact with virtual and real content in the same space.
ABC.com force you to watch ad breaks on their broadband site before moving to the rest of the episode.

Jonathan Ross launches mobile participation

Almost one year ago Future Platforms began work on the mobile Ghost Detector. Its ability to interact with a live broadcast made us look further into the mobile's ability to support audience participation.  We ended up developing the prototype of a downloadable application that can support live quizzes and other types of radio/TV interaction.

The feedback from broadcasters has so far consisted of interest and occasional excitement, but also - unfortunately - doubts on the technology and commercial model.

Things may be finally changing. Jonathan Ross as recenty started a new quiz format in his Saturday morning radio show on Radio 2. It's a WAP based format that lets the radio audience play along a quiz. One of the best performers is then selected to compete live against the winner of the more traditional call-in quiz.

This week's edition attracted 3000 players from home.

Live voting over mobile

A belated post following up on an event we ran last week at the Brighton Web Awards.

We ran real-time graphics at a live event, encouraging the audience to compete in the selection of the best site of the awards. Take a look at the video on the FP site.

The majority of the audience took part and produced an average of 8 votes per person!  I see it as a proof of the obvious: immediacy encourages participation. So why do TV shows still rely on SMS voting?

Mobile IM for brand loyalty

3 UK have sent more than 100M instant messages since launching the service in August.  To my knowledge, they are the only UK operator offering IM.  It is free for all at the moment and will possibily switch to a billable service for prepay customers.

What's interesting is that it is limited to 3's customers, but open to all MSN web users. They are offering it free for life on contracts, so they obviously do not see it as a revenue generator, but rather as a stimulus for text and calls, as well as a differentiator that should help retain and attract more customers.