Oct 21, 2005
Popularity of tiny TV exploding
An article in the Gulf News today declares that the “popularity of tiny TV [is] exploding.”:
Television on mobile phones may be tiny today in terms of screen size and programme choice but it looks certain to grow rapidly in the coming years.
That was the upbeat message sent by leading TV and digital media executives taking part in the first ever ‘Mobile Day’ at the annual MIPCOM audiovisual trade fair that closes its door today.
TV on the mobile has been ‘one of the big successes of the last 12 months’, reality TV supremo Endemol’s chief executive Peter Bazalgette said in a keynote speech. In 2005, mobile phone fans of Endemol’s global smash hit Big Brother notched up over six million streamed minutes and 500,000 downloads across Australia, Italy, and Britain, Bazalgette told a packed auditorium…
Another worldwide sensation in 2005 was 24: Conspiracy, the first ever original live-action thriller produced exclusively for the cellphone by Fox Entertainment Group and distributed by Vodafone. The 24 serialised 60-second mobile episodes, or so called ‘mobisodes’, ran in 23 countries around the world.
The article also says:
Whatever the programming, it must be short, as industry experts believe three to five minute bursts of video are the maximum viewing time on the small phone screen.
In some ways this is obviously different from what Apple is trying with their new iPod, but if TV on the tiny mobile phone screens is such a hit, then why wouldn’t it be on iPods? The iPod screen seems larger and better than many mobile phone screens, and I’m sure the Apple-distribution system (the iTunes software and store) will prove to be better than what anyone else can come up with.
[posted with ecto]