BBC Worldwide Secures Content Deal With Vodafone

BBC Worldwide has secured a ground-breaking deal with Vodafone Live! to provide the mobile group with downloadable content from classic programmes such as Fawlty Towers.

The deal will allow Vodafone Live customers to view classic scenes from BBC comedies on their mobile phones and it is expected similar deals will be hatched by rival broadcasters and networks. It also paves the way for advertisers to develop broadcast ads across the whole video-phone platform.

The deal, which represents the first of its kind for BBC Worldwide, was concluded following consultation and negotiation with on-screen talent, writers and their representatives and BBC Worldwide expects the market for video clips for mobile phones to grow rapidly.

Commenting on the initiative, Jonathan Crane, director of commercial broadband and interactive television at BBC Worldwide, said: “Licensing BBC comedy sequences to Vodafone live! is a genuinely groundbreaking deal for us. Accessing video via handsets is now a reality for us all, and as demand grows, BBC Worldwide is poised to provide a range of great video content to these new mobile services.”

The new technology offered by third generation mobile phones offers advertisers a variety of creative ways to reach consumers. Currently text messages are the only mainstream vehicle for companies conducting mobile marketing campaigns. However, leading media analysts have predicted that the growth of 3G technology will signal the end for SMS marketing as we know it (see Feature: Advertisers Gear Up For 3G).

BBC: 020 8743 8000www.bbc.co.uk

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