Mobile Fix: Hollywood goes mobile
Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, on the disrupting effect of mobile – focusing on two huge businesses where mobile is enabling new business models and shaking up old ones; TV & Movies and Money…
Hollywood goes mobile
Starting with TV and Movies might seem a little bullish, but we saw some startling data in a presentation from the COO of Sky at last week’s ISBA conference.
Talking about their multi-platform strategy he shared audience figures for their coverage of the Ashes showing mobile was a significant proportion of the total audience;
- DTH (good old fashioned broadcast TV) got 5.9 million viewers
- Sky Player got 0.5 million
- Web got 2 million
- Mobile TV got 1.2 million
- iPhone app got 1 million
Coupled with research suggesting mobile TV is finally taking off in places like China – with growth forecast at over 50% year on year – this made us look closer at the space.
We know from iTunes sales of video and the huge use of iPlayer on smartphones and tablets that people can and do watch telly on their phone. We pointed to this last May, with the Hollywood infatuation with mobile and also reported we’d heard that around 17% of iPlayer viewing was on the iPhone.
With iPlayer apps now available and iPads everywhere, this behaviour is going mainstream and the big players in content are rethinking their approach.
YouTube (which is already huge on mobile) is now commissioning content from ‘professional’ players like Hollywood agents and production companies plus building stronger relationships with the most successful producers of video content already on YouTube. Why? Because video advertising is growing really fast, as agencies evolve their TV buyers into AudioVisual buyers.
And with Facebook experimenting with streaming full length movies, we can expect more developments from YouTube
All of which leads some to suggest that, despite protestations, Google is a media company, rather than a tech one. Well they are now in the magazine business with Think Quarterly.
The other players in this space are less mobile focused right now but we think that will change. Netflix are pushing streaming, which we believe will migrate from PCs to tablets much sooner than it will get to connected TVs.
The clever people at Goldman Sachs agree – 27% of US consumers now streams TV shows and movies, up from 16% a year ago – the growth is due to a proliferation of devices like the iPad and iPad2.
To cement their position as the market switches from mailing discs to streaming, Netflix is also moving into commissioning content. Hollywood isn’t that impressed with the deal but there is a great opportunity to use the Netflix subscriber base to fund new episodes of cult shows when mass audience broadcasters drop them.
There is a good look at the problems faced by Hollywood in the Economist, which is worth a read if you’re interested in this sector.
Of course the other big player in movies is Amazon who are already used to going direct with books.
And as the Amazon appstore opens, there is speculation that they may choose to compete with Apple with their own tablet. Given the success of the Kindle and their knowledge and contacts with all the big media groups, that could be interesting. Especially as people suggest Amazon might follow the Gillette model and give away the Kindle.
Closer to home, ITV’s Adam Crozier said this week that digital is the way forward, talking about how The Only Way is Essex had the same numbers watching online as on TV – and that half of those watching on TV were on Twitter or Facebook at the same time.
Endemol talk about social TV being huge and with attention migrating from the big screen to the smaller one, we think we’re going to see new ways for brands to get involved with video content as 2screen start-ups like GetGlue and IntoNow get traction.
Wall Street goes mobile
The chance to get into the business of money, and take a slice out of each transaction, means everyone wants to play in this space; operators, device manufacturers, the existing players and a few start ups too.
The sector is already in flux (Paypal talk about their mobile transactions exceeding $6 million a day) and our recent deck on Mobile and Money shows some of the key trends and players. If you’re a financial services brand and would like to know more about our learnings in the space, get in touch.
Finally
The big new thing this week (can’t understand why they missed SXSW) is Color – a new photo social app that has raised over $40 million before launch.
Some people are very positive and some less so. Time will tell whether civilians find the idea of location based photos useful or compelling – but it strikes us that there is something of a bubble building around all things mobile and social.
As we keep saying; done properly mobile is a tool, not a toy.
VCs seem to have lots of money to spend on toys. Brands should be investing in mobile tools that solve problems for their customers.
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