What Do You Want On Your Mobile Phone?
by Brian Reich | 23 May 2006, 2:00am
A New York Times article this past Sunday profiled a company, Virtual Chocolate, that is developing games and applications specifically for mobile phones. Deep down in the article was this interesting nugget:
AT the media company that is arguably embracing the mobile world most aggressively — ESPN — there appears to be no limit to the amount of personalized information that consumers demand. It has made a big bet on Mobile ESPN, deciding to sell a special phone under its own brand name and to handle all the customer support.
For monthly fees ranging from $39.99 to $199.99, subscribers can get game updates, breaking news and other material. To watch video and to get news alerts, they have to pay an additional $24.99 a month.
Even though the editors and product managers understood that the first buyers for this phone would be die-hard sports fans, “I don’t think we realized how voracious sports fans are,” especially those in fantasy sports leagues, said J. Kieren Portley, product realization manager for Mobile ESPN.
As Mr. Portley, the Mobile ESPN editor Anthony Mormile and others adapt material to the phone, they have learned some tricks of the trade. Wide-angle shots are to be avoided, while slow-motion clips are to be welcomed. The sweet spot for video clips appears to be between 45 and 75 seconds. Short clips of confrontational conversations, like the big finish on the talk show “Pardon the Interruption,” are popular, and the network’s hosts and guests can satiate users’ hunger by providing punchy, informal commentary that they do not have time to deliver on the air.
ESPN has more content avaialble to it than almost any entertainment or news property out there. But the lessons they have learned can be applied to anyone who is looking to program content for mobile phones. Simply put, mobile is not a medium where you can simply repurpose your existing content and expect success. But it is a medium where you can continually generate new content and push it out to your audiences.
Read the article.
