Nokia research on mobile TV: music to Google CEO's ears

Stuart Corner
Monday, 13 November 2006 10:23

IT Industry - Deals

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was widely reported a couple of days ago saying that mobile phones should be available free to those willing to watch advertisements. Now, research into mobile TV sponsored by Nokia envisages growing popularity of 'snackable' TV content on mobiles, including very short (five second) advertisements.

The report, 'This Box Was Made For Walking', based on research conducted by Dr Shani Orgad at the London School of Economics, who "examines the impact of mobile TV on the advertising industry and predicts new opportunities for the industry as it is able to better target and interact with key audiences," according to Nokia.

"On mobile TV, advertisers will be able to pinpoint their messages to users according to very specific levels not possible with traditional TV and at success rates higher than those of the Internet," Orgad said.

The report also reveals that advertisers are currently experimenting with five and seven second-long ad spots better suited to the 'snacking culture' of mobile TV viewing.

The report predicts that the most popular genres and programmes on mobile TV will be news, entertainment (soaps, reality shows, comedy, animation), sport, music and children's programmes.

It says that content will be tailored with the mobile viewer in mind, and 'snackability' will be an important attribute:, such as much shorter and more concise news bulletins and 'mobisodes' - fragmented and small made-for-mobile episodes that cater to bite-sized portions of content on the go.

The report also predicts that programmes will need to emphasise visual spectacle over conventional narrative and be image-orientated; that broadcasters will need to focus on talking heads, where viewers will be able to watch close-ups and see the details, rather than capturing a wide screen; greater user interactivity in the plots of reality TV shows and game shows; and growing importance of user-generated content.