The Mobile Content Venture with NBCU, FOX, ION and Pearl Mobile DTV (a coalition of nine broadcast TV groups) announced a management team yesterday, albeit a part-time and interim one. Erik Moreno (SVP, Corporate Development, FOX) and Salil Dalvi (SVP, Mobile Platform Development, NBCU) will be co-general managers.

It “takes a village” to raise a mobile television service. The inhabitants are content, spectrum, enabled devices, client software, middleware, metrics and analytics, ad serving software, wireless carrier partnerships, revenue models, broadcast station and network collaboration, etc., etc. That’s just the start. It also takes a vision, risk capital, a business plan and very capable executives and operations team. And of course it will take audiences and advertisers to fuel the whole enterprise. Does the Mobile Content Venture have it all together yet?

Bringing products and services to market is a brutal lifestyle. As companies ranging from FLO TV to VCast, Sprint TV and Mobicast have discovered, there’s no easy path to success in launching and operating a successful mobile television service designed to be consumed on cellphones and other devices. Even when you try to jump-start things by building and operating the whole thing yourself, you can run into snags as FLO TV has discovered. Even using the Super Bowl as bait has still resulted in an obstinate response by consumers.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition’s Washington Consumer Showcase is creating a mobile television community incorporating most of the elements noted above in a research setting  to see what this market might look like some form or fashion for local broadcasting. BIA/Kelsey is assisting Harris Interactive with the consumer marketing research aspect of this project. Start looking for results from this important project over the summer and into the fall.

Tim Reynolds is Meredith Local Media’s director of interactive media and a speaker at Digital Strategies for Broadcasting 2010. He recently shared his tips for growing station web revenues based on his experiences in trying to do so since 1996.

He recommends:

1. Use of large, eye catching display ads. Don’t be afraid to go big!

2. Video display advertising. This allows clients to use on-air ads on the web site.

3. Pre-roll video run before news clips or live feeds with a call to action.

4. Content sponsorships offering fixed position ads on the web site’s high traffic pages, particularly in combination with an on-air package.

5. Put enough weight into the web inventory, it may take 100,000 impressions or more to get the job done for the client.

6. Contesting builds databases and valuable leads for clients.
Mobile banner ads linking to a splash page are engaging. Location based services are technically feasible and just starting to enter ad inventories.

7. Leveraging the power of the mobile device offers great new powers of audience engagement.

To learn more about Tim’s ideas and what Meredith is up to, be sure to attend his session at DSB 2010, “New Ad Revenues for New Times: Monetize Digital Fast!”

While the choice of whether to drop Internet or TV may not be a likely choice faced by many people, it is not entirely theoretical. As we discussed in an earlier post dealing with the growing OTT trend; more households, especially those run by younger heads, are opting to forego video subscription services and rely soley on Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming video over their broadband connections.

Local television broadcasters have an interesting opportunity now to capitalize on this trend toward picking Internet over TV. For most Americans, that may actually come to a choice of managing their expenses and lifestyles between spending on broadband connectivity versus other choices. Broadband is essential and consumers are organizing their lives and value sets around this fundamental reality.

What local television broadcasters can do is start promoting OTA+OTT as the hottest new package on the street. Some younger consumers are honestly amazed that you can get free, wireless, HDTV service from local broadcasters. And coming soon, broadcasters will be adding mobile TV back into their offerings (analog TV could be received on mobile platforms, e.g., Sony’s Watchman, but not so for the first version of the digital TV standard selected in the U.S.).

We see all those cable and satellite commercials. Wouldn’t it be smart for local broadcasters and their networks who increasingly rely on OTT services like YouTube, Hulu and TV.com to reach audiences to start their own promotional campaign on the OTA+OTT value proposition? Networks like CBS and ABC are promoting their shows on the new iPad. How cool would it be to start branding the OTA+OTT experience as as consistent part of these deals. This would help tie networks and their affiliates in a tighter and sustainable relationship long into the future.

OTA+OTT could be this year’s killer app for local television. By binding the notion of what local television is in the minds of consumers to both OTA and OTT platforms, the stronger their bond with the Internet, the better it is for broadcasters. It becomes OTA+OTA versus “those pay services.” Working with innovative firms like Sezmi, broadcasters can even be part of a new type of pay television service to augment advertising revenue with recurring subscription revenue. Sezmi’s CEO, Buno Pati, will be discussing this more at our Digital Strategies for Broadcasting 2010 conference next May 17-19 in Jersey City.

According to new research released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, news is personal, portable and participatory:

• Portable : 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized : 28% of Internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory : 37% of Internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

About 92% of Americans get their news from more than one platform; 46% use 4-6 platforms. The most popular news platforms are:

• 78% – local TV station
• 73% – national network such as CBS or cable TV station such as CNN or FoxNews
• 61% – online
• 54% radio
• 50% local newspaper
• 17% national newspaper such as the New York Times or USA Today

This study provides a lot of granularity to how local television and radio audiences are not only getting their news but how they are interacting with it. Users are much more active in personalizing their own experiences with the news and in sharing this with others. Seeing how the broadcast audience extends its experience across platforms in an integrated and active fashion argues for more multiplatform advertising campaigns by local businesses if they really want to make an impact. Local broadcast sales managers would be well served to take a look at this report and see what they can apply to their own sales initiatives.

Rainie compared 2000 and 2010 Internet profiles. In 2000, the Internet experience was “slow, stationary and built around my computer” but in 2010 it is, “fast, mobile, built around the cloud (outside servers and storage).”

Rainie commented on an
  online
 survey
 of 
895 
technology
 stakeholders’ 
and 
critics’ 
expectations 
of 
social, 
political
 and economic 
change 
by 
2020, 
fielded 
by 
the 
Pew 
Research 
Center’s 
Internet 
& 
American 
Life Project 
and 
Elon 
University’s 
Imagining 
the 
Internet 
Center. According to those surveyed, some key changes expected by 2020 include:

• Search improvements in relevance, relatedness and real time search.
• This will extend to an expansion of “local awareness” including  augmented reality on mobile devices where local, mobile searches which will “augment” cell phone video displays with contextual information overlays (e.g., local stores offering coupons, discounts including pedestrian directions).
• Moving from keyboards to touch screens to conversational interfaces, complete with much better language translations.

The survey presented “tension pairs” of forced choice statements with opposing viewpoints for the sample to consider. For example, in considering whether “Google makes us stupid” by making it too easy to find things on the Internet, 81% of the experts said no, the Internet will make us smarter. In fact, Rainie elaborated on this by presenting the concept of “shifting cognitive capacities.” Essentially, this means our brains will adapt to the new powers of the Internet and integrate these into how we deal with the world. Rainie spoke of the fourth “R” of retrieval added to the traditional 3 Rs of ‘rithmetic, reading, ‘riting.

Mark Walsh in the follow-up panel shared his great concern that unchallenged “lying happens on the Internet.” Even with tremendous and unprecedented access to information, he fears that people increasingly are choosing not to accept data contrary to their viewpoints.

There is a strong role for local traditional and digital media in the future of the Internet. Business models premised on trusted content, location-aware and contextually relevant advertising, reputation management, social networking and user generated content will leverage all the key trends foreseen out to 2020.

Consumers are continuing their evolutionary ways for integrating traditional and digital media into their lifestyles. Increasingly, consumers are forming different kinds of relationships with their media and developing a continuum of experience across platforms. Content consumed on broadcast platforms now morphs into consumption of that same and other content on desktop, mobile and player devices.

As audience change their relationships with and uses of media, marketers also are changing their behaviors by leveraging cross-platform synergies to create end-to-end consumer experiences and maximize revenues.

According to McKinsey, while traditional marketers spend about 60% of the budgets on paid media placements, active digital marketers spend about half that amount. Digital marketers also spend about 50% of their budgets on content compared to only 20% for traditional marketers.

Advertisers tend to concentrate their media and marketing budgets on up front brand marketing and promotions at the point of sale. Incremental revenue can be increased by 10%-20% by creating a continuity of consumer experience across the purchase funnel from (1) Capturing traffic; (2) Engagement; (3) Qualify leads; and (4) Conversion and loyalty.

As shown in the chart below, McKenzie summaries the experience of three of their clients who made efforts to coordinate customer experience to drive customer loyalty and sales conversions. (Note: the full article is available free upon registration at www.mckinseyquarterly.com).

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According to an article in today’s New York Times, the goal is both to bring web functionality such as Youtube videos, Google search, Twitter social networking and using Picasa for managing photos. Presumably, “Google TV” would be a Chrome-like browser experience for the user.

Of course, Google has been trying to find a foothold in the television business by managing and selling local advertising inventory. While this has not made much of an impact to date, the company certainly has the resources to keep at it. By establishing a presence in the living room, Google can create its own television ad inventory to sell as viewers launch some version of a browser to interact with this latest box.

Generally, this move by Google and its partners continues the evolution of television’s newest distribution platform, Over The Top (OTT) video. OTT is now competing with cable, satellite and telco distribution as television viewers can access on-demand and linear video using Internet connections to watch network and local television programming as well as movies, Youtube video and other services.

For local broadcasters, this creates interesting opportunities. Local television operators have focused on retransmission and multicast carriage deals with cable, satellite and telco distribution. That’s been a successful source of new and high margin revenue. OTT video creates a new business paradigm and potential new revenue outcomes for broadcasters. Imagine being able to have your own apps in the Google Android app store which can be used to build audience for your OTA programming, drive new web traffic to your sites and add to the overall user experience with your brand by leveraging creative viewer enhancements to extend the viewing experience.

Will we soon see local TV promo spots pushing a new “OTA Plus OTT” solution? Local TV stations can create a consistent user experience by leveraging their over the air signal into TV sets and with the new DTV Mobile standard, mobile phones. Adding to the OTA capability, the enhanced functionality of OTT and this could be a winning combination breathing new life into local TV’s cross-platform growth prospects. Generic Propecia India
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Colin Pape, Co-Founder/President of ShopCity.com, an early stage Internet company, has a vision, “imagine finding prices for any product or service offered within your community all on a single website.” That’s what he’s doing with his company. ShopCity’s business model is working with local businesses and putting, pricing, availability, hours of operation and methods of payment in the ShopCity.com marketplace to facilitate local purchases. ShopCity.com provides small businesses with a package of advertising services, sponsorship opportunities, a suite of online business-building tools and a local marketplace they can buy and sell through that is heavily promoted in the community.

Small businesses are often eager to consider advertising online but they are attracted to a more complete local market solution that includes on-air, events, and other local points of presence in the marketing mix such as outdoor signage. “Small businesses want to be on the Internet but they’re reluctant to pay for an intangible Internet presence that’s just online – however, when you combine online with in-community advertising – whether it’s signage, radio or TV ads – something they can experience offline, the equation changes,” Pape says. ShopCity wants to drive additional success by partnering with local radio stations to leverage their brand credibility, ability to reach key demos and local sales forces. In return, ShopCity offers a compelling digital solution for radio stations to add in to their mix. ShopCity typically does revenue split deals.

ShopCity got the idea of working with local radio stations from a Midland, Ontario radio station. The Dock FM was looking for a unique angle to bring to its multiplatform advertising efforts and an ability to get a “call to action” for its advertisers. Since the station kept bumping into ShopCity’s sales reps, The Dock FM’s Sales Manager reached out to see about a partnership. ShopCity saw the possibilities and agreed to work with The Dock on ShopCity’s ShopMidland.com site, offering free profile pages to radio advertisers as a value-add, and with the station promoting a co-branded sub-section where businesses could get a special discount while the Dock earned revenue share on paid packages.

ShopCity is looking to develop the model further and is seeking broadcast partners that are already running ‘shop local’ oriented campaigns. Says Pape, “I see huge potential for radio stations and community-branded web platforms to come together to create cross-platform value for each other’s medium. Radio plays an important part in our strategy moving forward.”