Execs anticipate value in content made for mobile

ORLANDO, Fla.-In a ballroom filled with tech-savvy players in the wireless industry, audio and video problems kept cropping up for each of the five panelists on the “Producing Mobile Content” session at the Mobile Entertainment Live session as CTIA Wireless 2007. It served as the perfect backdrop for an industry tasked with the vexing desire to deliver rich content to the mobile environment.
If short video clips brought by the executives working on this medium can’t be screened successfully at a wireless convention, just where does that leave the mobile alternative?
The fact is, plenty of companies are already delivering on their promise to make mobile live up to its capabilities as the third screen, perhaps too many. One thing that all are in agreement on, however, is that mobile can’t be the catch-all for everything media; producers of mobile content have to keep the medium in mind. With that comes a shady gray area.
Where some believe their greatest opportunity lies in original programming, others say the same challenges apply in producing content for the mobile screen as has been the case on the TV screen for decades.
“There have been so many content failures,” said Nancy Levin, executive producer of music television at MobiTV. Its strategy is focused on working with the field of already-established big brands out to market. “We work deeply with all the labels to get all this kind of original content,” she said. She brought up MobiTV’s recent project, Avril Lavigne TV, as an example of helping produce content for the mobile environment while capitalizing on the name recognition and star power of A-list talent.
GoTV Labs Executive Vice President Dan Tibbets said the challenge is finding and delivering programming that hits an emotional tone with viewers and fits the need for immediacy. GoTV creates 15 hours of original, made-for-mobile content each week, comprising about 18 percent of all content that they distribute, he said.
FunLittleMovies President and Chief Creative Officer Frank Chindamo said there’s still plenty of room for new players in the video sphere, thanks to mobile. His company has about 1,200 films in its library and has been recognized at numerous film festivals for their original content. Going further, Chindamo showed a 2