CANNES, France: Endemol, the TV company behind hit programmes like Big Brother, is launching two new channels exclusively for the mobile phone market. These are Extreme Reality Channel, featuring "weird" clips from the world of entertainment and a comedy channel.
The company's chief creative officer Peter Bazalgette, in a presentation at the Mipcom conference, said there will be some three billion people watching content on mobile devices in the next five years, almost equalling the number of TV audience.
He said mobile content will revolutionize providers' relationships with the viewer as interactivity will be a norm. Unlike the access to TV audiences, content providers can now hope to reach people 24 hours a day, which is a big opportunity, he added.
Endemol is already providing programmes for mobile phone users through a streaming arrangement after the content is broadcast over TV. These include its major programmes like Big Brother, which is broadcast on Viacom's CBS network, and an Italian soap Vivere (Living). .
The company had some six million streamed minutes in 2004 and 500,000 downloads across Australia, Italy and the U.K. for the Big Brother, Bazalgette said. Describing mobile content as a different mindset, he said it needs to be worked out as an industry, assessing what people want and at what period of the day. This is a process, which is just beginning, he said.
There are limitations like non-availability of good quality handsets that can support streaming video, music and TV broadcasts. What will apply to the future is interactivity and this is a very vital area that will determine the success of the concept, Bazalgette said.
Endemol will be partnering with a number of mobile phone operators in this venture. IIt is creating a new division for the purpose.
In a related development, mobile network 3 said it would become a media rather than a telecom company and it is adding seven established channels including ITN and Bravo.
Posted
on : Sun, 23 Oct 2005 02:35 GMT | General News
By : Salim Patel
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