NEW YORK-Vivendi Universal has worldwide ambitions, particularly in the area of wireless technology and interactive television, and equally important, it possesses a balance sheet to support its plans, said Jean Marie Messier, chairman and chief executive officer.
“We believe we are the world’s first global media and telecommunications company. Our goal is to be the world’s preferred creator and provider of personalized information, to provide content, access and delivery across all technologies and devices,” he said at a September conference.
“When you speak of European telcos, the response is `What a disaster!’ But we are the only European telecommunications operator with no debt. We are reaching profitability targets. We are reducing the cost of (customer) acquisitions and increasing average revenue per subscriber. We are expecting strong third and fourth quarters.”
The media conglomerate, which owns a controlling interest in Cegetel’s SFR, the second-largest mobile network operator in France, expects a full-scale commercial launch of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services by mid-2002.
“We have been a bit late because of the lack of availability of handsets. But this is one of our most exciting opportunities, particularly given the emergence of Vizzavi, Europe’s number-one multi-access portal, which will be aided by GPRS.”
Vizzavi, jointly owned by Vivendi and Vodafone Group, had 5.3 million registered users at the end of October, and its goal is to reach the 10 million mark within the next year.
In late September, Vivendi launched Universal Mobile Music, targeted at teenage and young adult subscribers, who receive a variety of services geared to their favorite recording artists, based on their preferences. Users can personalize their voice mail so callers hear a recording artist identify him or herself and say they are taking a message for the subscriber. In addition, customers get advance notice of new recordings and concerts in their areas, with the option of buying them at a discount using mobile commerce.
“On the content side, this is low-cost direct marketing that will reduce music distribution overhead … It will be even better next quarter when we release CD anti-piracy software. And it is scalable to mobile operators outside France,” he said.
Rather than seeking to own distribution channels, Vivendi has established joint marketing agreements and alliances with a variety of companies-with Microsoft and Yahoo! for online music; with Sony, AOL Time Warner, Viacom and MGM for online movies; and with In-Demand for video-on-demand services. In most instances, Vivendi will receive the lion’s share of revenues from these agreements, Messier said.
