HBO Mobile highlights, teasers and tasers

Nothing disruptive in today's article in the NYT "For Tiny Screens, Some Big Dreams" (20060521). Digital Chocolate's shares should go up for a while but beyond that, nothing really new.
Yet, that was the occasion to mention HBO Mobile and the concept of series-highlights for catch-uppers, some kind of a sequel-teaser for those who missed the Sopranos or their favorite program. You can see who stole the base during the bottom 5th without being stuck on your seat for 9 innings, you can tell what Jack Bauer's been doing without following him everywhere all those damned 3600 seconds. That's what highlights are all about : putting the bulk of the time in the dark. That's what mobility is all about nowadays : getting more essential but less substantial.
The younger generations are growing up with their own figures of speech (which has always been the case), their own writen language (an heritage from SMS and e-mail) and now their own emotional quick fixes (sneak peeks, highlights, teasers, flashes, vibrations, artificial "Events"...) ; your mobile and your remote control* as tasers directed towards yourself. It's getting more and more difficult to make you react but that's the only way to make you feel still alive.


* in my case, it's the same device, remote con becoming a basic feature in handsets. Korean web, TV and mobile programs are becoming more and more exhausting for overstimulated networks and viewers.

Endemobile reality check : mobile soaps and bubbles

Endemol's Peter Bazalgette announced two new mobile channels : Extreme Reality Channel and a future Comedy channel.




Freemantle Media Licensing Worldwide announced a mobile version of The X Factor with MIG (Mobile Interactive Group).
Freemantle's rather classical approach shouldn't bring much disruption to the market. No big Fear Factor for Endemol : they intend to shake mobile TV the way they did with SMS (remember Big Brother and Veronica ?) with "a non-stop parade of the bizzarrest and weirdest video clips from the world of entertainment". According to the not so entertaining Endemol Mobile website, content will partly be "based on the huge back catalogue of Endemol".
I wonder what's more depressing : an microerzatz of existing soaps or the most extreme worst of reality TV trash, straight from the bin. 3G is fine, wait till they get 3D and odorama...

Google Mob... (pay $.99 for the unshortened version)

An Everest of paper at Wall Street, Google are supposed to be using actual greenbacks anytime soon. Google Earth recently provided a pleasant gliding experience, Google Desktop 2 a nasty private investigation into Billy Boy's files (Outlook Toolbar, Sidebar, Quick Find), and Google Talk another gun pointed on MSN as Microserves face their gazillionth antitrust attack this side of the Han River*. But many expect the Mountain View, CA squad to put some flesh on Google Mobile or Google Wireless Services. Others mentioned browsers or a yahooish shift towards mediaship... Whatever. Tremors are shaking the Valley and I guess the sismic attacks on Google (these mobsters just suck all innovative people away from competitors) may find their epicenter not far away from Redmond, WA (yet I'm affraid The Big One will be for the man named Gates but who still didn't believe in portals in year 1995).
To be frank, I'm much more excited by the last arrows coming from Amazon : Amazon Shorts could contribute to shaking the old publishing tree as efficiently as the internet did with the music industry**.
I know, short stories are so old media but shorts are of season : short message services still sell, mobile comics and wireless mangas are all the rage and who would dare go on the beach without exposing a 64M-color-3G short movie ? You look great indeed, but you're splashing everybody and if this sea turns out to be a pound you're gonna drown in a pool of bubbles. Look at Wireless TV & Studios Inc. claiming "As MTV developed the language of cable. We have developed the lingo of Wireless TV", and believe it or not we have Nitrous Ltd on board ! Not all people screaming "I'm the king of the world" on the top of both their lungs and the Titanic did make it to the Oscars.

* Among the plaintiffs, RealMedia hopes not to end up as the next Netscape and Daum doesn't get any support from MSN's main competitor in Korea, NateOn (fear of any collateral damage for a dominant player in the mobile arena ?)
** selling short stories $.49 apiece is certainly not a revolution (just like Apple didn't invent anything with iTunes nor with iPod) - it's the players that matter. And the thing is right now you can't publish short stories unless you've published a novel first. Explain this to movie director wannabes.

Radio killed the video stars

More meshed potatoes ahead ? MusicFM are selling about 20,000 live streams from their website everyday thanks to 4FO's Potatosystem.

The format is neither "Red Apple" nor "Yukon Gold" but MP3 whose inventors, Fraunhofer IDMT (Fraunhofer-Institute for Digital Media Technology), initiated 4FO (4FriendsOnly.com Internet Technologies AG) back in 2000 with the help of the local university (Technische Universität Ilmenau). The payment system (Paybest) and DRM system (Game Feature Platform or GFP, also implemented on the Softgames portal) are home made solutions too. The business model gives the bulk of the money to the artist and co-founder Tim Renner, a former Universal Music top exec, makes sure no music major is needed. Most songs are performed by German alternative bands, only a few big names accepting this up-to-now-not-so-secure system. Yet it seems to be catching, thanks to a smart viral marketing tool : buyers can become reselling platforms and get a 20% discount on the song. Besides, MusicFM knotted a partnership with T-Online's Musicload portal.

Presented at CeBIT 2005 on a Nokia 6630, PotatoSystem Mobile Music Messenger enables "mobile music chat" and users to pre-listen the songs of other PotatoSystem users while sending SMS. Talking about viral marketing... But such synergies between radio and mobile wouldn't be a first : years ago France Telecom Mobiles (now Orange France) and a few partners launched a system where you could order from your mobile the song you were hearing on the radio as it was broadcasted. You heard a familiar tune but couldn't remember the artist or the title ? No sweat : you just needed to give the station's name and could purchase the CD instantly. At that time, people envisioned the handset as the ultimate remote control. At that time, people were focusing on the GSM - W-CDMA path and DAB or DVB were as good as DOA. At that time, Virgin Radio was preparing for radio over UMTS on the Isle of Man.
Whatever the techno, narrowcast fanatics should remember open minded people will always enjoy some kind of broadcasting. Even automatic shuffles on an iPod owner's collection of songs won't replace the editorial line of a good DJ.