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ETO Technology News, Private Wireless feature and Show previews - October 2006 edition
Private Wireless Rule the (Air) Waves
In late September ETO spoke exclusively with Tim Clausen, Director of Wireless Technologies for Private Media Group, about their approach to business in the mobile adult entertainment sector. He started by explaining about his background in the telecoms industry.
"I used to work for T-Mobile International in London in the International Content Team and I left to join Private in May 2005. At Private I was given the challenge of taking over the mobile department. Adult is a highly successful content category with carriers. Now they nearly all have an Adult Content manager as carriers split mobile content into music, sports, movies, games and adult. A lot of carriers will have a dedicated person to look after each. Coming from an operator's side I understand how this works and that adult is important because it generates a lot of revenue.
When asked about Private's impressive growth, Clausen said, "In the past mobile had been an add-on business for Private. This is back when it started in 2002, but it never took off as such. Some of that is understandable because we are dependant on things like 3G-handset distribution. With new handsets and faster networks, data services are being used more, which is all good for us. As Private is one of the leading brands in the world, it was a great chance for me to take over last year and we've done well, to be honest!"
He continued, "We've made a lot of new contracts, gone live with more operators. We work with content aggregators -the likes of WAAT Media, Cherry Sauce, Buongiorno, Minick, Lechill- they have our licence and are responsible for acting as our sales team, build the products, handle billing and develop relationships with operators. When I started here the distribution wasn't well understood so we've moved deeply into that and now we know which operators are where, what content they'll carry, where we're still not live- So it's far more in hand and under control now."
Does the Private name open doors in the mobile market? "Being a big brand gives us an advantage, as everyone in mobile with an interest in adult wants to work with us, and as we're now tailoring mobile-specific content all the operators are absolutely open to carry us as a brand. Everyone wants top brands to give their customers freedom of choice and we're known for high quality. Therefore it's easy for us to find these distribution channels. What we started at the beginning of this year is content production specifically targeted for mobile phones and operators. The nature of our content was always traditionally very explicit, with softer versions for the US and UK. Now we've making fully soft content for carriers who can't show more explicit material. So that's bikini girls, bikini video, topless, striptease… In some markets that's all you can show, so when we just made hardcore they'd say, 'We'd love to have the Private brand but we're not allowed to do it'. So number one, we got that sorted."
Clausen expanded on this strategic approach to positioning Private. "Now we're in markets which are quite conservative but we're in them and generating traffic and revenue, distributing content and maintaining Private's name for quality. In markets where there is no age verification this approach is very helpful and the future looks great because a lot of operators are working o, or already have age verification systems and we'll be positioned to make more explicit content available through them when the time comes. With robust age verification in place operators can ensure minors have no access to explicit content through their service."
Looking forward, Clausen described some of the challenges and opportunities facing Private Wireless. "We're currently going live with around ten carriers per quarter, mostly in Europe. While there's no way to make adult content available in the US on-portal, we have to focus on where there's a market. But the market in the States will change. It's not a question of if they'll open up, it's a question of when. Wireless is becoming the Internet in your pocket and why should there be adult choice online, but not available through carrier's portals? For now we're developing Latin America, Asia, Russia and India. We are currently distributing mobile content in 25 countries, 21 in Europe plus four in the Americas and the Far East. That's through 55 mobile network operators, covering approximately 430 million handsets. That's a lot of customers and potential customers. You can see there's scope for us to grow further - the potential for Private is just fantastic."
Private offers multimedia rich products ranging from downloadable videos, MMS videos and images, wallpapers, voice and ring tones, Java applications, games, and the newest offering: streaming Mobile TV. They provide all levels of erotic stimuli content from beauty to high quality glamour to semi-explicit and explicit content via its mobile channels in order to suit the requirements of as wide an international market as possible.
In March 2006 Private launched its D2C WAP portal 'wap.private.com'. The portal uses the latest technology and billing capabilities and offers Private's world renowned content featuring the entire roster of leading Private stars, Private's popular DVD blockbuster mini-sites, games, downloads, online magazine, SMS chat and much more. The portal offers Premium SMS short codes in the UK, Germany and Spain, and global Credit Card billing. It also incorporates a complete and tested age-verification system. A feature on their affiliate programme will appear in a future issue of ETO.
Trade Show Previews
In date order, the following events deserve a circle on your ETO wall-planner.
The new Venus-Web-Area has been described as the latest home for adult entertainment via the Internet and telecommunications. The 10th VENUS takes place from the 19th to the 22nd of October 2006 in Berlin on the Messe Exhibition Ground site, under the radio tower. 340 exhibitors and 6000 trade visitors from more than 50 countries are expected at this year's event, and some 700 media representatives will be reporting on it - including a group from ETO.
The Berlin Venus has long proved itself as the biggest and most important specialist trade fair for the European erotica industry, and every year it attracts an international adult audience to the fascinating city. Reacting to how the various content markets are increasingly blending together, the new VENUS-WEB-AREA will contain a mixture of content providers, as well as operators of various affiliate and other programmes and payment methods. Demand has quickly developed for the V-W-A, and at the time of writing only a few lounges are still available.
Axel Schaffrath, Press Officer for Venus said, "Of course, the focus is going to be on good deals, but does that mean it has to be boring? No, because the heart of the new Venus web area is going to be a large bar, where lovely ladies will be serving free drinks (the quantity depends on the size of the Lounge), and there will be plenty of entertainment programmes to mark the 10th Berlin Venus. A complete Venus-Web lounge is available from just €1500. For that you get four days at the trade fair including site, furniture, carpeting, lights, electricity and exhibitor passes -the quantity depends on the size of the lounge."
For exhibitors and visitors alike, getting to the site is easy thanks to efficient German public transport. From Berlin's Tegel airport take an X9 or 109 bus towards the Zoological Gardens, and then change at Jungfernheide for an S42, S45, S46 or S47 train bound for Westend, to Messe Nord/ICC.
From Tempelhof airport it's a 104 bus ride towards Neu-Westend Brixplatz, getting off at Haus des Rundkunks and walking from there.
If you're flying into Schönefeld, jump on an S45 train towards Gesundbrunnen and jump off again at Westkreuz. Then take a S5 or S75 train towards DB Bahnhof Spandau and get off at Westkreuz, Messe Süd.
For further information on the main show, or the Web area, go to www.venus-berlin.com or telephone 0049 30 3499 1144. They'll be pleased to answer any of your questions to help you have a successful visit to the trade fair.
Several members of ETO's editorial and publishing staff will be attending Venus Berlin. If you'd like to meet the team to discuss advertising opportunities in the magazine, or to talk about feature or article ideas, please contact editorial@erotictradeonly.com to arrange a meeting.
Still in Berlin, Eurowebtainment is also celebrating its tenth event. This coincides with Venus, running over the 19th and 20th of October at the Estrel Hotel, Sonnenallee 225, 12057 Berlin. It's promoted as Europe's most important meeting point for entertainment in Internet and telecommunication, with a particular focus on mobile business this year.
International professionals from many different areas of entertainment in the Internet and telecoms industries will come together to exchange experience, present their latest products and their companies as well as join the seminars and events of the EWT show and the exciting EWT social programme. The 'Who's Who' of the online and mobile entertainment industry meets at this two-day event, held twice yearly. The spring Eurowebtainment meeting takes place in Majorca and goes by the motto 'Biz & Fun in the Sun'. This autumn one, labelled 'Get2Gether', has a definite trade-show feel to it and is held in Berlin at the same time as the Venus fair.
To quote from their press release, the Eurowebtainment meeting provides the platform for B2B networking in a pleasant and casual setting, where attendees can establish new business contacts, as well as cultivate and strengthen existing ones. Since its inception, the interesting locations and extensive social programme have combined to make the Eurowebtainment event Europe's most important meeting for professionals in the online Entertainment industry.
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS: Industry pioneers, up-and-coming enterprises and newcomers all take advantage of the EWT meeting to present their business and products in person. In this relaxed atmosphere, it doesn't take long to make new contacts, or to maintain or intensify old ones. …Let's network!
KNOW HOW TRANSFER: Interesting talks and seminars, the mutual exchange of knowledge and experience, and the presentation of new products and services all combine to give attendees a clear overview of the industry and, with it, a valuable commercial advantage. ...Be up to date!
NETWORKING: In addition, the legendary "speed-networking" facilitates many new and interesting contacts in the shortest possible time. During short meetings, company representatives are introduced to one another according to previously determined criteria.
EWT-WEBMASTER-FORUM: For the first time, Eurowebtainment offers a special programme with several speeches, roundtables and workshops, specifically for webmasters. EWT will provide free drinks and a party with different shows and buffet in a chilled atmosphere.
In addition to the business events, there's an extensive social programme with parties, exclusive buffets, and the crowning of Miss Eurowebtainment to complete the show.
10th Eurowebtainment Programme
Wednesday 18th of October
8:30pm Come together. Welcome Party at the Estrel Hotel. Sponsored by Eurowebtainment / Venus / Mediatainment Publishing GmbH and the Estrel Hotel.
Thursday 19th of October
11:00am to 6:00pm. Eurowebtainment Professional Meeting Business 2 Business - Meetings; Product-, Services- and Company- presentations; exchange of experiences; Speeches - workshops - roundtable: Bango, Four2Be, Carmunity.
11:00am to 6:00pm. EWT Get2gether lounges and bars. Free drinks sponsored by PartnerCash.com.
4.00pm to 6:00pm. Speed-Networking. 'Uncomplicated' socialising with interesting people from the event within a very short time.
8:30pm. Eurowebtainment VIP Party with the election of the Miss-Eurowebtainment, featuring a gala buffet, shows and free drinks.
Friday 20th of October
11:00am to 6:00pm. Eurowebtainment Professional Meeting Business 2 Business - Meetings; Product-, Services- and Company- presentations; exchange of experiences; Speeches - workshops - roundtable: Sexmoney, A1 Newmedia, Bango, Lawyer Marco Dörre. Bob Rice.
11:00am to 6:00pm. EWT Get2gether Lounges and Bars. Free drinks sponsored by PartnerCash.com.
11:00am to 7:00pm. NEW EWT-Webmaster-Forum with special programme speeches, workshops, roundtable and party for Webmasters.
For more information in English, visit www.eurowebtainment.com/en or call 0042 3232 6846.
A full preview of AOE Budapest will appear in the November issue of ETO, but here are the basic details. The main show takes place at the Grand Hotel Royal in Budapest, Hungary, from the 9th to 10th of November 2006. Visit www.aoexpo.com for the latest information and schedules. The event runs in parallel with World Telemedia, over the same dates and in the same hotel. While focusing away from the adult market, World Telemedia will have many billing service exhibitors, as well as others with crossover products of interest to the erotic content industry.
European Sex War?
A firm that claimed a right to the domain name sex.eu under an unusual legal interpretation of the rules lost its case in September. Topeu.com took its case to the Czech arbitration panel which rules on .eu domain disputes, arguing that .eu registry EURid should not have given sex.eu to a company called Yellow Register On Line rather than them.
Because Yellow had a registered trademark for the word 'sex' and they were the first company with a prior right to the term 'sex' to apply for the domain, they were successful in being awarded it. Topeu asserted that while Yellow was the first in line for the domain and had a trademark on 'sex', Topeu had a stronger claim to the domain because it had registered a trademark for the entire phrase "sex.eu."
"The complainant contends that the proper interpretation of Article 10(2), especially the phrase '...the registration of the complete name for which the prior right exists' is that it means that the entire domain name, inclusive of the '.eu' suffix, must be reflected on the trademark registration certificate," was the crux of the company's case.
EURid said the 'complete name' refers only to that which precedes the '.eu' suffix. Arbitration panellist James Mitchell ruled against Topeu and in favour of EURid, writing, "It is self-evident that the meaning of 'complete name' ...is the name excluding the .eu suffix. Were this not the case then those companies who had gone out of their way (whether cynically or otherwise) to register a range of trademarks including '.eu' would effectively gain preference over all other trademark owners in their rights to .eu domains. To impart such a construction would be to clearly contradict the letter as well as the spirit of the regulations and to undermine the very purpose of the 'sunrise' period."
The registry also pointed out that Topeu had attempted to make the same case regarding the casino.eu domain, and that the arbitration panel in that case had rejected its claims on that occasion too.
The new, easy, free way to get mobile content.
Portable media giant SanDisk recently unveiled a set-top device that records video and compresses it to fit on a memory card, making it ideal for playback on mobile phones. The V-Mate can record from any source with standard video connections, including terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVD, personal video recorders (PVRs) and, for those 30-somethings who still have their teenage porn collection, good old fashioned VHS.
It supports all popular memory card formats, including SD/MMC, MMCplus, MMCmobile, SDHC, MiniSDHC and MicroSDHC, plus Sony's Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick PRO Duo. SanDisk says recording times will depend on the encoding requirements of the target device -potentially phones, handheld games consoles including the PSP, PDAs and laptops- and the chosen video quality level. Capacity for a 1Gb card in a modern mobile phone with a large screen is over three and a half hours, at a bit rate of 544 Kbps. With a maximum recording resolution of 640x480 pixels, the V-Mate can also generate files for playback on larger screen devices such as a TV or PC, but at the expense of recording times.
SanDisk's Product Marketing Manager, Matthijs Hutten, said, "The V-Mate will make it easy for consumers to watch video on their devices by doing the analogue digital conversion for them, compressing the video into MPEG-4 in multiple formats and then creating the correct file format for the target mobile device - all features unmatched by any product today in this price range."
The V-Mate will be available in October, priced around £99.
HSDPA, coming soon to a mobile near you. Rated 18 (probably)
3UK, the mobile company, successfully demonstrated HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access - also known as 3.5G) broadband network technology to industry insiders in September and confirmed it expects to upgrade its 3G network for subscribers in Greater London before 2007, with the rest of the country to follow.
The ability to speed up and enrich content services with what's being called mobile broadband will be of particular interest to those in the adult market with an interest in streaming -perhaps live- content, and in improved video size and frame-rates.
During the HSDPA demonstration, 3 showed clips of the movie X-Men 3 encoded at 1Mbps, which would be impractical to access across the current 3G network as it can only sustain data rates of around a third of this. The company expects HSDPA to make downloads around five times quicker than 3G in the short term and that the technology could eventually reach speeds of 14.4Mbps.
Although no new content services have yet been unveiled with mobile broadband in mind, 3 is clearly working on promoting it to the industry. 3 has a track record of innovation, having been the first UK network to launch a user generated video clips service, for example.
HD Hold up
With the announcement of a delay to the launch of Sony's Playstation 3 last month, it should come as little surprise the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is still at the stare-out stage. While few people own either system, there's not enough friction to spark any real firefights between early adopters. Part of the delay to hostilities is the formats' shared reliance on short wavelength (i.e. blue) lasers, which is the critical component of both systems. Only a few factories world-wide manufacture them and none have been able to produce the volumes needed for the next generation of disc-players to get up any momentum. Even Sony, who make the laser pickups for themselves and others has predicted shortages. For firms relying on 3rd parties to supply them with the blue lasers the outlook is gloomy as shipments are expected to be constrained into Q1 2007, and depending on the success of the PS3, perhaps even longer. This will delay the launch of many home players and computer drives until after the critical holiday season, further suppressing sales for a technology many consumers remain convinced there's no requirement for. It seems the battle may not be between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but with end users who can't see anything wrong with current DVDs.
Radio HaHa
A radio advert for a Home Office-run child protection website has inadvertently directed people to adult porn, the industry watchdog said. The radio commercial was publicising the thinkuknow.co.uk site which advises children how to stay safe online. However, any listener who mistakenly typed in the address as thinkyouknow.co.uk would find a series of links leading to porn sites. According to the Advertising Standards Agency, without meaning to, the Home Office advert indirectly publicised adult material and sexual services.
The Home Office has apologised for any 'unwitting problems' after the industry watchdog found the radio commercial breached of the advertising code. The ASA said the radio advert should not be broadcast again in its original form and urged the advertiser to make the spelling of the website address clear in future.
The radio advert had gone, "Giving out personal info could let a paedophile track you down. Be smart online, be safe online. Visit thinkuknow.co.uk". After investigating a female listener's complaint, the ASA said the radio advert hadn't made clear how the web address was spelt. If typed the more traditional way, it would direct listeners to links for adult material and sexual services. With some irony, "This was particularly concerning as the ad was aimed at teenagers and the service being promoted was to help them stay safe online," the watchdog said. It added: "Although we recognised that there was no intention, we considered that a significant effect of the ad had been to indirectly publicise services which were unacceptable for broadcast: namely restricted adult material and other sexual services."
'Private-to-Own' download service launched
Barcelona-based Private Media Group recently announced the launch of Private-to-Own, a large online high-tech movie download and burn service using the DivX platform, one of the world's most popular video technologies.
The initial catalogue was of over 450 Private titles with more added over times, which were available to be viewed on nearly 2000 different models of DivX certified player. By adding a new revenue stream Private hope to grow on their existing download service at private.com/shop.
Unlike some file formats, DivX allows downloaders to begin watching the film before it's finished being sent, and Private are using a clever system, not unlike iTunes' DRM to suppress piracy. Somehow the software knows how many devices the film's on, and users are limited to six per downloaded title. Once the movie has been downloaded it can be saved to hard-drive and/or burnt to DVD, as well as transferred to other consumer electronic video players. This freedom and flexibility for Private's customers is the big selling point of this new service.
Chairman, President and CEO of Private Media Group, Berth Milton, enthused, "We are proud to deliver high-tech movies to our customers 24/7 worldwide with our easy-to-use Private-to-Own service, especially when our closest adult entertainment competitors are still in the beta phase of development and offers only 50+ movies to their customers. Private-to-Own is another example of our aggressive approach toward the online digital distribution marketplace."
Virgin unveils.
Virgin Mobile has announced that it'll launch the UK's first broadcast mobile TV service on October the 1st. Initially four channels will be available -BBC1, ITV1, Channel4 and E4- with Virgin offering the service and a compatible Windows Mobile-based HTC handset free to customers with contracts costing £25 a month or more. Pre-pay customers can buy the phone for £199, with Virgin Mobile TV costing £5 per month after a free three-month period. Channel 4 will initially broadcast 'Channel 4 Short Cuts', its made-for-mobile TV channel, with a full Channel 4 simulcast to follow.
Virgin Mobile's managing director Alan Gow said, "Virgin Mobile finally delivers what others have been promising for so long - real TV broadcast to your mobile, delivering the programmes you want to watch, when you want to watch them, in a simple and easy-to-use experience."
The service will be provided by the DAB IP-based BT Movio mobile broadcast platform, which on top of the four channels will also offer 50 digital radio stations, 'red-button' interactivity and a seven-day electronic programme guide (EPG). Emma Lloyd, MD of BT Movio, said, "BT Movio looks forward to working with Virgin Mobile as our first customer. We fully anticipate that their well-known marketing flare will attract many UK consumers to the service."
The Virgin Mobile TV launch will be supported from October 9th by a 'multi-million pound' advertising campaign, starring Pamela Anderson. Which may be the first time 'Virgin' and 'Pamela Anderson' have appeared together in the same sentence. There's no word on adult or 'late night' programming, but it's easy to imagine this will follow.
It's a stop-gap. Live with it.
While the adult industry and other iCasters move closer to providing movie downloads direct to set-top boxes, some companies are offering 'interim services' to fill the gap. With its recently launched download-to-DVD software, ObjectCube has inched one step closer to this goal.
Studios and video-on-demand providers which are looking to move into the direct-download space will be offered the software, says ObjectCube CEO Jay Janarthanan. "All they have to do is take a DVD from the shelf, use our software to create an image, and from that image they create a downloadable format. You get all the menus and chapters and everything you would on a regular DVD, but without all the re-encoding. It's the next step in technological evolution."
According to Janarthanan, it will be up to each studio or VOD provider to determine which restrictions may apply to the downloaded content. In some cases, end users may only be able to burn single copies of movies, or they will not be allowed to download to DVD if it's been 30 days since a title was purchased.
Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network founder Scott Coffman, whose company is one of the first to use the software said, "The best thing about this technology is that it moves [the adult Internet industry] from being a computer-based visual industry into the television strand. What we're most excited about is taking our customers who watch our product on the Internet and moving them into the TV market."
Janarthanan is quick to acknowledge that this new software is just a temporary fix though. "The whole DVD download-and-burn [approach] is basically a temporary thing until the real video-on-demand technology comes through. Right now, there's no way to download an entire movie onto your television," he says. "There are a lot of things happening in the next few years: You're going to have set-top box players with Internet connections, and you'll be able to download movies onto your hard drives. But, until that happens in the US, this is a great substitute for the next two or three years."
If she's on the game, it's in the game
The bubbling cauldron that is the online adult videogame market got a fresh stir recently with the release of Virtual Hottie 2. The game of sexual simulation is now part of the Virtual Hottie Cash affiliate programme through CCBill. Launching a beta version in September, the game's second version is designed to work on all Windows XP PCs with Direct X and features 3D graphics with never-before-seen features in sex games. These include the ability for users to direct the scenes, save AVI files of the action, direct their own adult movie, and participate in virtual threesomes with customisable characters. Company spokesperson Hal R spokesperson Hal R helpfully added, "We're working on a number of new games, but everything is under wraps right now."
Webmasters had the option of submitting their own ideas for the game until the end of September. Those that sign up for the cash programme can get a free beta download with proof of link. Affiliates will receive 50 percent in revshare, with Virtual Hotties 2 set to launch officially on October the 15th.
World grows bored with sex. Civilisation doomed.
An Australian survey has revealed that there's been a downturn in porn searches online since the mid-90's. Apparently it's business and commerce topics which are now being researched. Professor Amanda Spinks of the Queensland University of Technology said that the interest in porn had dropped from 'more than 17%' to '17%', at least in terms of web searches. Her research analysed up to 30 million search sessions from Alta Vista, Ask.com, Excite and others.
Her research has highlighted several reasons why sex might have slid. One was that when people found adult sites they liked, they'd bookmark them rather than make frequent searches on the same topic. Another factor may be that in the past ten years the Internet has become more useful to people NOT looking for smut, making this demographic more visible.
There's also been speculation that the original porn-hounds are no longer using search engines to locate pornography as they've already gone blind.
Penthouse sweet for WAAT
Adult mobile heavyweight WAAT Media has signed a multi-year agreement with Penthouse Media Group to distribute Penthouse content throughout Europe and the Americas. LA-based WAAT will distribute photos, games, editorial, audio and video clips from the Penthouse library. Penthouse Forum and Penthouse Letters will be featured, along with new material specifically designed for mobiles.
"Our agreement with WAAT will reinforce Penthouse Media Groups' ongoing effort to deliver quality adult entertainment to mobile consumers worldwide," stated Mark Rudolph, president of licensing for PMG Inc. "WAAT's experience in adapting and distributing content to meet the wide diversity of technical and regulatory requirements, creating compelling consumer WAP, Mobile-TV and game propositions, will represent one of the industry's most significant launches to date."
Managing Director of WAAT Media Adi McAbian concurred: "It's exciting to be an integral part of revitalising the Penthouse brand on a global basis. Leveraging our platform, we will be launching over 50 premium mobile content sites on operator portals that include images, videos and games in 18 countries within the next 60 days. In addition, we are developing three mobile TV channels, numerous integrated Premium SMS campaigns for Penthouse publishing partners and a web-to-mobile program for Penthouse online and its affiliates."
In related news…
LA-based Twistbox Entertainment has announced that it has raised $12.75M in a venture capital round led by Boston-based Spark Capital. The newly formed company will provide wap sites, mobile TV channels, and mobile games. Twistbox will become the parent company of both WAAT Media and Charismatix, a mobile games company that develops J2ME, BRew, and DoJa wireless games. Ian Aaron has been named CEO of the firm. All 'late night' entertainment programming will remain under the WAAT subsidiary.
Newly crowned CEO of Twistbox Entertainment and its subsidiaries, Ian Aaron said, "We are bringing our current businesses under one overarching brand in order to continue building an internationally recognised, world-class mobile media company. The new entity will leverage our seven years of experience in mobile content publishing and game development. With more than 400 mobile WAP sites, 50 mobile TV channels and 160 games deployed across 90 carriers in 16 languages, we're in a unique position to bring our content and distribution partners the next generation of mobile entertainment, marketing and advertising."
Twistbox Entertainment currently operates in over forty countries and has opened offices in the UK, France, Germany, Poland and Russia.
Playboy encourages folks to play with themselves
UK new media firm YooMedia has signed an agreement with Playboy Enterprises to provide a casino-style gaming service for the adult entertainer's range of satellite TV channels and mobile phones services.
Under the deal, Playboy will offer fixed odds, casino-style gaming to its customers in the UK and Ireland, and will market these services to its customers and databases via TV, the internet and direct communications.
For its part, YooMedia will provide other third-party distribution via mobile operators, retail stores and other means of physical and digital distribution. The companies will also jointly explore other value-added services, including enhancing the Playboy channels with gaming and other interactive TV programming.
Jeff Georgino, Playboy's Divisional VP of Location-Based Entertainment, said, "Playboy, with its well-known history in gaming, continuously looks for innovative ways to embrace technology and extend its brand. Partnering with YooMedia, a well-established, hi-tech pioneer, enables us to move into the UK and Irish TV and wireless gaming markets with confidence."
My, it just keeps getting bigger
According to Juniper Research, millions of adult consumers' entertainment world is about to change. Juniper's new study, 'Mobile Adult Content: Text, Images & Video, 2006-2011', predicts that mobile adult video services will mostly replace traditional mobile text-based adult services within the next three years, and the worldwide market for mobile adult content will be $2.7 billion by 2009. The report sees the global market for mobile text-based adult services peaking next year at $303 million, at roughly 20% of the mobile adult content market, and then declining as media-rich graphics and video services become even more dominant.
Market share of mobile adult content revenues worldwide, by segment. 2006 / 2011.
Video and games - 50% / 72%
Graphics and tones - 30% / 21%
Text based - 20% / 7%
Total revenues (billions) - $1.4 / $3.3
Mobile adult video services, which already account for 50% of the global market, will continue rising in popularity to reach $1.7 billion in 2009, and $2.4 billion by 2011 - when they are expected to bring in over 70% of mobile adult content market revenues.
Although some industry analysts question the wisdom of targeting adult content to the ultra-small screen, Bruce Gibson of Juniper says these fears are unfounded, "As with mobile games and mobile gambling, the mobile channel will not just be another delivery channel for existing content. It will in fact be a different way of presenting adult content. The mobile channel will reach new audiences who will use the products in a different way to their use of print products, DVDs and the Internet."
He adds, "Because mobile is about fun and instant gratification, products will need to be designed to provide just that."
You made it - you milk it. User-generated content finds a new home at momo
Activefone and Bango have partnered to launch the world's first cross network direct to consumer user-generated content platform; momo.
Aimed at anyone wishing to set up a branded mobile community service and become the central facilitator of consumer generated mobile content transactions, the momo platform allows users to upload pictures and video and make them available to other community members, globally.
Once content has been uploaded to the momo platform a Bango Service package is automatically set up, enabling users to log onto the momo interface to create and manage their own mobile inventory. It also provides complete visibility in to the amount of downloads that have been successfully completed and any payouts that are due to the content creator. Payout levels for completed downloads also far outweigh current operator user generated content levels with 20% of the value of each download being awarded to the content creator. Content is paid for using PayPal, credit card and via mobile phone bill on some mobile networks.
The momo platform can also be executed as a bespoke or white label mobile community service, allowing media companies, publishers and brands that are seeking new ways to harness and monetise the growing consumer appetite for user generated content anywhere in the world.
Typically this will be a niche magazine that can advertise the service directly off-the-page to its readers. For community owners the average payout for successfully completed downloads will be set at 50% after fixed costs.
"User generated content is already huge on the Web and its appeal proven, driven by the likes of MySpace, Flickr, YouTube " said Eden Zoller, Principal Analyst with Ovum's consumer practice. "The foundations for rich forms of user-generated content are now in place in the mobile market, notably MMS enabled camera and videophones. The challenge is how provide an interactive, secure environment that stimulates usage and rewards consumers, but without compromising the integrity of user generated content. This role is up for grabs."
Mark Watts COO of Activefone said: "Voice and text are both types of user generated content. These two mediums have shaped the mobile market since conception and are both examples of user generated content. With this in mind who can doubt the market potential of user generated content regarding mobile multimedia products? The momo solution and its billing integration with Bango will undoubtedly take the mobile content market by storm and provide much higher levels of interactivity to community services."
"User communities have proved very popular on the PC web and are now being replicated on mobile. Enhancements to the Bango Service cater for the needs of these mobile communities which consist of large volumes of users." said Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango. "With the industry predicting that community services are to become the largest revenue generator for mobile entertainment by 2011* user generated content is set to thrive."
Activefone is currently in discussion with several major brands and will soon be making announcements on these partnerships. For more information please contact the momo team via momo@activefone.com.