Executive Interview: John Smelzer

Stalwarts in media are increasingly bullish on driving their audience’s eyes and ears to just about every channel imaginable. But just as these powerhouses are finally finding their online groove, they’re efforts are being re-doubled on the next frontier in media-mobile phones. Fox Interactive Media has a full range of successful online media properties; John Smelzer is the man charged with extending each of those unique products to the world of mobile. “We’re about 30 years behind cable,” Smelzer said in an interview with RCR Wireless News. And “that’s cool,” says the SVP and GM of mobile for FIM. Smelzer has enjoyed his time in the mobile content game and seems eager and prepared to ride this wave into the sunset. “I’m amazed at what we’ve achieved as an industry. I’m very optimistic about where it’s going to go,” he said. “I think it’s going to be hard sweating and I think it’s going to probably take a little bit longer than people want, but I’m very optimistic about where this is all heading.”
What do you predict will be the biggest change to the mobile content space this year?
“I think you’ll see more free, ad-supported content in the form of WAP sites. However at the same time I think you’re going to see greater adoption of video products and offerings across all the carriers that will not be free. They’ll be part of a bundle of products and services that the carriers will offer. So, you’ll see video channels being bundled with SMS buckets and Web-surfing access on phones, but not a lot of advertising in video. That will follow. As soon as we get to a broader adoption of video, I think you’ll start to see ads find their way into video.”
What are some of the projects you’re working on right now or in the coming months?
“My job is to oversee the mobile extensions of all the Fox Interactive Media Web sites. As you know, we’ve got MySpace.com, FOXSports.com and IGN.com, and quite a few others that we don’t talk enough about, but are actually really exciting properties like MyFOX.com, which is our local news affiliates, RottenTomatoes.com, which is an aficionado brand for film buffs, and AskMen.com, which is an aficionado brand for lifestyle. So, you look at all these products, all these sites, they all have tremendous potential in mobile. And yet each one is different and they have different business objectives, different content offerings, maybe different offerings on mobile. The challenge is how do you extend all of these sites simultaneously and then at the same time account for all of their different characteristics and how that lends itself to different offerings in mobile.”
Do you think specific forms of content have more potential in the mobile environment? Or is the plan to extend all of FIM’s properties to mobile and see what rises to the top?
“I think they all have a mobile place, right? But it is going to be different for each one. So, for example, for FOXSports.com, you know we kind of feel like sports scores are ubiquitous. They’re sort of everywhere … You almost can’t avoid a score. So, we’re not going to try to sell people sports scores that they can get everywhere else. But, by contrast, FOXSports.com through its broadcast and cable outlets and through the original production that FOXSports.com is doing, we have tons of high-quality video that no one else has. And so, that’s a property that lends itself to video and all the manifestations of the mobile video business. On the complete other end of the spectrum, you have MySpace.com, which is about social networking, and so how do you empower consumers and how do you empower handsets to have a true social networking experience? Is that through WAP, is that through our Java application? How do you price that? What’s the business model, how do you get that technology on the phone? I think definitive models will emerge, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
How does FIM match each of its online properties with the right platform for that properties’ unique audience on mobile?
“Take MySpace, for an example. To truly social network on a mobile device, you’ve got to have some fairly enhanced functionality if you’re going to do video uploading and photo uploading and blogging and texting from the phone. And so, our thought was that a Java client or a BREW client would provide a superior experience to end users. We felt that MySpace, given its popularity, would have some success in getting a client like that distributed. And that’s in fact what we’ve done. We’re live with (AT&T Mobility) and we’ll be looking to roll that mobile client out on a number of other carriers in the coming year. And so that’s a great way to use the technology to enhance experience. On the other hand, there are millions and millions of people who will just go to their mobile phone and type in MySpace.com looking for our Web site. And currently that’s not an audience that we’re serving because we’ve asked them to download this client. Over time, we will have a WAP site for the casual, quick user that just wants to come in and see if he or she had any friend requests. … If they’re an avid user and they really, truly socially network on the phone, then they can download the client and that will give them an enhanced performance.”
An extensive social networking site, like MySpace.com, seems built to suit the personal computer experience. How does FIM convince those PC-based users to try the service on mobile?
“I don’t think you have to convince them. I think they would do it gladly if as an industry we could give them the power to do that. And that would be through the handsets, the networks . latency in the networks, productivity, photo uploader, video uploader, screen size. There are inherent industrywide limitations to doing anything on a mobile, whether it’s social networking or watching a video. As an industry we have to keep providing enhanced functionality to handsets. Once we do that, and once we really replicate or almost replicate the PC experience on the handset, then the consumers won’t take any convincing at all. They’ll be happy to do it.”
I understand you’re looking to create a free, ad-supported business model. Is this where you see the most potential for turning a profit on your mobile properties? Where will subscription and premium services fit in?
“Profit is sort of hard to define in a big, macro organization such as this. But, the mobile business is inherently high margin because we’ve already produced all the content once for the Internet. And actually it’s not that difficult and fairly cost efficient to re-purpose content for mobile once you’ve already produced it once for the Internet, because at its core it’s all Internet protocol. In general, we’re bullish on mobile because we think it’s inherently a high-margin business. Also, instead of focusing on how we make a profit next year, if you focus on how do we create the highest value, highest-functioning experience for the end user on the mobile device, if you focus it in that way and with a goal of amassing a large audience on these devices, then the money will follow.”
What is FIM looking for from wireless carriers?
“We need interoperability for content above and beyond SMS. SMS was a great first step, MMS is a good second step, but we need that for sort of all content. . The carriers say they don’t want to be a dumb pipe, and so we say ‘well then be a smart pipe.’ Help us innovate to allow people to really consume content on the phone just as they would online without all of the barriers that come with being a subscriber to a particular network. And then I think the other thing we need to do as an industry is content providers and carriers need to come together quickly and establish rational business models for ad-revenue sharing . in the multiple mobile platforms. We’ve got to do that quickly so that we can offer a very broad array of free content to consumers quickly so we can amass that audience and in turn sell the advertising.”