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March 16, 2006
MobileTV Startup Wonderphone In The Money
Mobile TV is the target application for a good number of recently funded chip companies in Europe. But the a:c euro has been wondering if Mobile TV is going to be one of those permanently "emerging", in the same way that videoconferencing has been “emerging” since the very early nineties.
A bit of the answer to that question is provided in an interview on VNUnet.fr with Philip Plaisance, founder and CEO of Wonderphone in France (pictured below).He said his mobile video content company achieved annual sales of €15M last year. That’s a pretty good revenue for a firm that is barely three years old.
Plaisance is proving that maybe Mobile TV is more than a tantalizing mirage, despite the company name.
Plaisance comes from the TV and film industry. He built up a group of film and television content companies, including home shopping networks, reality TV shows, stock photography catalogues, films, and programming. When sold the group in 1996, it had 1,500 employees and annual sales of $100M. That means he knows something about content and distribution.
In the interview which was mainly focused on his application to the authorities in France for a license to broadcast television, he gives some insight into the mobile video content market. Here’s our summary from the French text.
- France is number 3 worldwide, following Japan and South Korea.
- One quarter of 3G (third generation cellular) users consume 25 minutes a month of mobile video content.
- His firm’s portal has more titles than competitors which he believes is a key to his success.
- While TV streaming is the first application new 3G phone purchasers try, Plaisance says that content will be consumed when consumers want it (on demand).
- It’s still not clear what type of audio-visual content consumers will pay for
-He’s not convinced that it will be adult content, suggesting the screen “is perhaps a little small”.
Wonderphone does some production work, but mainly it aggregates thousands of videos, short films, cartoons, and adult content, then sells it to mobile network operators, 70 of them in 40 countries.
Wonderphone is currently applying for a license in France to deliver mobile TV as a “push and store” service. The operator pushes the programs to the phones where they are automatically saved for the user to view at leisure. Covering its bets, the firm recently launched Manta, a mobile games portal. It employs 70.
Read - Télévision sur mobile : la France ne doit pas perdre son avance
Posted on March 16, 2006 07:44 AM | Posted to Wireless | Permalink
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