OXFORD, United Kingdom—News International, the vast media organization with outlets in most major countries, is preparing to unveil its proprietary mobile content delivery platform and a new strategy of forming direct relationships with operators, rather than working with intermediaries.
The new division, labeled Omnimedia, is said to be planning to launch next month and terminate its relationship with its current wireless service provider, WIN. Stephen van Royen, the firm’s new general manager, said that with News International’s volumes and scale of activity, it no longer makes sense to work through an agency.
“It works out in our favor now to go straight to cell-phone operators. We get increased revenues and better terms of control of the relationship,” he said.
Van Royen added that the firm had already negotiated reverse billing agreements with BT Wireless, Vodafone and Orange, while its short message service (SMS) gateway is being built by Empower and its technical platform is being developed by Nettec.
While this move by News International may signal a fundamental shift in the wireless market, as media owners look to take mobile services in-house rather than working through the array of intermediaries, others within the wireless intermediary sector deny that their business models are under threat.
