Watch all red carpet interviews from Streaming Media West in San Jose.
I sat down with Paul Scanlan, President, Co-Founder, MobiTV @ Streaming Media West to talk about TV on the cell phone.
MobiTV does three things. It:
- serves as the technology platform for a content brand such as the NBA to deliver its content to consumers on mobile devices.
- delivers a mobile experience to consumers that is similar to what a cable operator does on the TV – packaging and aggregating a variety of network programming from content providers for a monthly subscription under the MobiTV brand.
- provides a white label version of the same MobiTV service to carriers such as Sprint so that they can sell their own MobileTV service (e.g. Sprint TV).
MobiTV’s main focus is to help carriers create their own mobile TV networks. So while the company offers a direct to consumer service, its goal is to be the white label engine that powers Verizon TV, AT&T TV, Sprint TV, etc.
Interestingly, because Apple doesn’t support subscriptions as a billing model, MobiTV has helped content brands create iPhone applications that conform to the purchase and own model. For example, iPhone owners can download the Ultimate Fighting app for $0.99 and then pay-per-view within the UFC application for each fight. The first fight, streamed live straight to the iPhone in September, cost $44.99.
The NBA League Pass, also powered by MobiTV, can be downloaded in the App Store for $39.99. This allows me to watch live Celtics (or any team) games from my iPhone wherever I am for the entire season. Google Android owners can also download NBA League Pass from the Android app store.
Paul asserts that the Mobile video market is growing out of its novelty phase, as evidenced by subscriber growth and, as importantly, usage growth per subscriber.
MobiTV believes that every phone should have some sort of TV application that allows consumers to watch programming from their favorite networks (ESPN, CNBC, FOX) or online video providers such as Blip.TV and Youtube.
At the lowest level, an attractive video programming package helps carriers sell more data plans. So maybe the programming as part of a basic package is free and ad supported when I get a cell phone with a data plan. For example, Sprint TV is one of the main applications baked into the Sprint phone plan. Sprint subscribers get a basic video package that includes some impressive content, such as the NFL package.
Sprint actually pays the NFL and eats the cost to deliver the NFL Network package to all of its subscribers. This is a marketing expense for Sprint. The thought process is that once people watch the NFL they will start to discover other premium content they want to subscribe to, similar to what a cable subscriber goes through when they can see, but not access, HBO until they subscribe to a premium package. So begins the upsell.
The last time MobiTV announced subscriber numbers they were at 7 million subscribers. Paul says they are well beyond that now, although he declined to break news during our conversation and provide up-to-date subscriber numbers.
For the most part, MobiTV is focused on the US market.
The company has also struck deals with music labels to create dedicated music video channels for Hip-Hop, Rock and Pop, among others.
One of the interesting innovations MobiTV is working on revolves around meta data. For example, imagine if you tell your mobile TV application that you are an investor and want to follow Microsoft and General Electric. The application can then deliver financial news clips to you that mention the companies you follow. So instead of having to watch an entire episode of Squawk Box or a Fox Business program, I can just search key words such as MSFT and watch video segments that cover the companies I’m interested in.
