LG Prada mobile phone

"LG says it will sell more than 700,000 units of the Prada phone by the end of 2007." ME December 2007

Read it free, buy the book??

' Three years ago “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” a children’s novel illustrated with cartoons, was published online, where anyone could read it free. To this day anyone still can, at Funbrain.com, an educational Web site. Despite laments about youngsters spending too much time surfing the Web and not enough time reading, it turns out that many of them still want the format of old-fashioned paper stuck between two covers. Since an edited form of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” was published as a traditional book in April by Amulet, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, it has sold 147,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks 50 percent to 70 percent of retail sales. The book, written and drawn by Jeff Kinney, has spent 33 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. This Sunday, it will be No. 1 on the Children’s Chapter Books list. That a book derived from free online content has sold so well may allay some fears that giving something away means nobody will want to pay for it. It also encourages publishers who increasingly scour the Internet for talent, hoping to capitalize on the audiences that a popular Web site can deliver.
“I think books are still things, thank goodness, that people want to own,” said Michael Jacobs, chief executive of Abrams. “The package of the book and the way it feels is something apart and separate from being able to read it online.” ' New York Times, December 2007

Itsmy.com mobile social network

'Mobile social network notches 300,000 users in the UK. Itsmy.com, the mobile/PC social networking site operated by Germany-based Gofresh, has amassed 300,000 members in the UK.And its reckons lazy, work shy Brits are flocking to mobile because 49 per cent of them can't access social networks from their office PCs.Gofresh surveyed 5,000 people between 16 and 54 years old across Europe and compares the UK figure to mainland Europe, where only a third of lazy employees are unable to check their profiles from their desks, presumably due to lax firewalls.Gofresh CEO Vince Staybl said: "People want to be connected with their friends 24/7 wherever they are. This becomes more and more difficult, as PC internet access is limited or not available at all." ' Mobile Entertainment, December 2007

For Toddlers, Toy of Choice Is Tech Device

"Cellphones, laptops, digital cameras and MP3 music players are among the hottest gift items this year. For preschoolers. Toy makers and retailers are filling shelves with new tech devices for children ages 3 and up, and sometimes even down. They say they are catering to junior consumers who want to emulate their parents and are not satisfied with fake gadgets. Consider the “hottest toys” list on Amazon.com, which includes the Easy Link Internet Launch Pad from Fisher-Price (to help children surf on “preschool-appropriate Web sites”) and the Smart Cycle, an exercise bike connected to a video game. Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine and an industry analyst for 24 years, said there had been “a huge jump in the last 12 months” in toys that involve looking at a screen. “The bigger toy companies don’t even call it the toy business anymore,” Mr. Silver said. “They’re in the family entertainment business and the leisure business. What they’re saying is, ‘We’re vying for kids’ leisure time.’ ” Technology has been slowly permeating the toy business for a number of years, but the trend has been accelerating. On Wednesday, six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon.com were tech gadgets. For all of 2006, three of the top nine toys for that age group were tech-related. The trend concerns pediatricians and educators, who say excessive screen time stifles the imagination. But more traditional toys — ones without computer monitors, U.S.B. cables and memory cards — are seen by many children as obsolete." NY Times, December 2007

Japan's hit novel written on mobile

"One of Japan’s best selling books Moshimo Kimiga was written entirely on a phone.
The 142-page book has sold more than 420,000 copies since it was converted into hardcopy format in January. It was originally marketed in instalments from an internet site and pushed to mobile, only to be converted into paper when it became a ‘new media’ hit. Writer Rin said: "I started writing novels on my mobile when I was in junior high school and I got really quick with my thumbs, so after a while it didn't take so long.”Her story is fairly typical of a new trend in Japanese publishing where mobile novels – called ‘keitai shousetsu’ – have become a publishing phenomenon. They are especially popular among younger women. Indeed, half of Japan's top-10 selling works of fiction in the first six months of the year were composed the same on a mobile phone." Mobile Entertainment, December 2007

EA makes more from mobile than PSP or PS3

"The console industry doesn't always treat mobile with the respect that we'd say it's due. Yet the latest set of financial figures from Electronic Arts could change that.In the third quarter of 2007, EA made a whopping great $640 million (£311m) in revenues from all its gaming platforms. But it's the breakdown that's interesting.Xbox 360 was the publisher's biggest cash cow with $218 million (£106m), followed by PlayStation 2 ($73m/£35m), Wii ($59m/£29m), and DS ($47m/£23m). But next comes mobile with $37 million (£18m), ahead of PSP ($21m/£10m) and PS3 ($17m/£8m).That's right. Just to restate the point, EA made more than double the revenues from mobile games than it did from PlayStation 3 in the third quarter this year." Pocket Gamer, November 2007

US mobile market opens up like Europe - content boom market

"Verizon Wireless is opening up its cellular network to any device or application that meets the “minimal technical standard” to run on its network. That means pretty much any CDMA device or application, even ones that are not officially offered by Verizon. The devices and apps will have to be tested and certified in a new $20 million Verizon lab being set up for that purpose, but by early next year if you don’t like the phones that Verizon sells, you will be able to bring your own unlocked CDMA phone to the network—maybe one you bought from Sprint or overseas." Tech Crunch, November 2007

AT New Media set up to help PACT accord IP owners

"TV production trade body Pact has created a new media rights framework that gives interactive and digital content producers ownership rights of their commissioned content for the first time. The framework, which has been negotiated initially with the BBC, lets interactive content producers retain and manage the rights to their content-led ideas. The deal covers all interactive digital content commissioned by the BBC, such as new media games, websites, pieces of technology, voting engines.." New Media Age, November 2007

Decode and online developer investment

"Halifax, Canada-based DHX Media, the umbrella corp that houses both Decode Entertainment and Halifax Films, has invested US$2 million in Montreal, Canada-based on-line game developer and VOD broadband kids-channel operator Tribal Nova, and now holds a 16.7% interest in the company. Tribal Nova works with children's broadcasters and ISPs in North America and Europe to produce online game content, recently launching its first channels in France and Canada. Another channel is scheduled to launch in the US in early 2008. The company has designed online games for kid faves such as Caillou, Toopy and Binoo, Totally Spies! and Di-Gata Defenders. The partnership will provide another distribution platform for DHX Media's content and enable both its production houses to present broadcasters with fully developed multiplatform proposals. Tribal, for its part, stands to benefit from DHX's contacts within the global children's entertainment industry to widen its client base." Kidscreen November 2007

Women & mobiles

"Women love mobile, but they’re not too keen on mobile content. Research published today reveals that 60 per cent of UK women say they can't live without their mobile phones, but only 33 per cent of them have used their mobile phone to surf compared to 47 per cent of men." Mobile Entertainment November 2007

Monster creation from Mind Candy

"New web community for kids lets users adopt a monster. Mind Candy has taken the wraps off its new kids virtual world and online social community, Moshi Monsters.Aimed primarily at seven to 12 year-olds, the site – which can be found at www.moshimonsters.com - incorporates an in-game economy, casual games, social networking capabilities and a range of educational elements in a safe environment.Children can adopt an animated monster from the world of Monstro City, which they can then customise, name and nurture by interacting with other monsters and by solving the daily puzzle games created for them. By completing the brainteasers, players earn rewards called Rox which keep their pet healthy and happy.
They can spend Rox on virtual items like food, furniture and monster treats to update and accessorise their monster’s home.The beta launch period will begin mid-November, during which consumers will be invited to adopt a monster by purchasing a Moshi Monsters MoPod. Each will contain a unique UD code to allow access to the website. MoPods are mobile phone accessories which light up and spin when the phone rings or receives a text message.“The social networking aspect of Moshi Monsters will make it especially appealing to children, allowing them to connect with friends and show off their monsters in a safe environment.”" Licensing.biz November 2007

Save an alien t-shirt

http://www.saveanalien.com/ is a viral application growing fast via Facebook that already includes print-on-demand merchandise availability. Fans can have their own alien design made into a t-shirt or mug.

Facebook faker reveals Spiderpig-naming is web of lies

"When a group was set up on the social networking website Facebook entitled: "If 100,000 people join, my wife will let me name my second child Spiderpig", the result was inevitable.
The petition dangling the prospect of a child being named after a pet pig character in the Simpsons movie attracted signatures like bees to honey. Members soon rocketed to well above the required number and founder Oli Young was under pressure to deliver. But to the disappointment of the thousands of people who joined the "Spiderpig" group, Mr Young, from Adelaide in Australia, has now revealed it was all a hoax. The web developer posted a message on the group's page informing people the idea was just a practical joke. "This was never more than a couple of bored geeks kicking around an idea. We hope you had fun. We really didn't mean to offend anyone and we hope you aren't too disappointed in the truth." Mr Young has one daughter, called Amélie, but his wife is not pregnant and he says that in any case he would never be so irresponsible as to call his child "Spiderpig". He and his colleagues instead took delight in monitoring the success of their creation, which gained worldwide attention. But even after Mr Young revealed the truth, the group was still gaining new signatures yesterday and heading for 120,000 members." Scotsman October 2007

Kids' TV in Crisis

Greg Childs, Secretary, Save Kids' TV October 2007: "The Save Kids’ TV Campaign, allied to other organisations, like PACT and the Voice of the Listener and Viewer, has spent the last 12 months trying to alert the public, Ofcom and the Government to the disaster facing kids’ TV in the UK. The Ofcom Report on Children’s Broadcasting released on October 3rd finally told the story officially. Kids’ TV production in the UK is in severe decline. ITV has exited completely, Five has pulled back to pre-school only, Channel 4 has made no kids programming for several years – and the international channels, while trying their best to make content here, have nothing like the budgets of the BBC and formerly ITV. Parents and kids Ofcom surveyed spotted there are fewer and fewer home-grown shows (only one per cent of the 113,000 hours of kids programmes last year were new shows made in the UK.) They also recognise the need for kids to see programmes about themselves, the lives they lead, and the society they live in.
Save Kids’ TV would go so far as to say that a society which stops telling its own stories is heading for trouble. Great kids’ TV is pat of the glue that holds us all together. We can’t afford to lose it. So the Lego deal highlights two of the key issues in this rapid decline in kids’ content production. From being the second largest funder of kids’ TV in the UK, with a raft of great home-grown shows like Art Attack, My Parents are Aliens, Jungle Run and How2, with a spend in excess of £25m a year, ITV have closed down their in-house production department and commissioned nothing in the last 18 months. From being a public service provider of children’s programmes all year round on ITV1 (even though it a cost them to lose the adult impacts) ITV has reduced its commitment to kids to two hours a week (Saturdays) for most of the year. The only time they make significant returns on their advertising is when Santa’s on his way, so the schedule responds. Ofcom are powerless to regulate against this, and equally unable to insist on levels of production or spending. Why should this matter for the licensing industry? Well on one level maybe a diet of internationally produced shows is a good thing – bigger brands, wider impact, lower costs. But audience figures and research show that kids like local programming – they want to see people like themselves and hear their own voices. Drama and factual are the two areas identified by Ofcom as in significant decline. Drama is expensive and more and more international co-pros mean fewer local stories that play to kids’ real-life concerns. Factual programmes are notoriously difficult at crossing borders, so they could disappear.
In both these cases opportunities could be lost – opportunities for brand owners to connect with kids in a meaningful way. The pressures on advertising revenue caused by the fragmentation of the children’s TV market, migration of kids and advertisers to online, and the ad ban on certain types of food are the root of the funding problem. Save Kids’ TV is campaigning for the Government to step in. A petition on the Downing Street website backs that up. But maybe this is also an opportunity for other players to consider their role in keeping alive great content for UK kids. At the annual UK kids’ media conference – Showcomotion (held in Sheffield each July) - programme-makers, broadcasters, distributors and other potential partners like the games industry came together to consider new ways of building funding bases for kids’ content production. Advertiser-funded programming was on the agenda, but the toy and licensing trades were conspicuous by their absence. We’ve got a world-beating industry struggling to find backing for great creative content for our kids. Isn’t it time we started taking a fresh look at the relationship between brands and content?"

IBM Teams With Second Life To Build Portable Avatars

"IBM and Second Life creator Linden Labs are teaming up in an effort to create avatars that can jump from one virtual world to the next. Under the plan, the companies will work together to develop standards that, if broadly employed, would allow online Web users to move their digital personas seamlessly across virtual environments like Second Life and other 3-D worlds.
To kick start the effort, Linden Labs has launched an open forum called the Architecture Working Group -- where some of the more tech savvy Second Life citizens can help create a roadmap for the project. Other virtual worlds that Second Lifers could potentially connect to include Dreamville, There, and The Sims Online. IBM says universal standards will help drive the use of virtual worlds beyond gaming and entertainment and make them more practical for businesses. Among other things, the company envisions online malls where avatars can stroll around, chat with "sales avatars", view product demonstrations, and make purchases. "We see users demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business," said Colin Paris, IBM's VP for digital convergence, in a statement. IBM has already embraced Second Life for internal use. The company has held staff meetings and other employee events in the virtual world, and CEO Sam Palmisano has his own, persistent avatar. The company also recently issued a list of employee conduct rules for Second Life. However, some IBM employees are using Second Life in ways the company likely didn't intend. A group of disaffected workers at IBM's Italian operations recently held a virtual demonstration against IBM in Second Life to protest wages and working conditions." Information Week October 2007

IBM Consumer Survey Shows Decline of TV as Primary Media Device

'A new IBM online survey of consumer digital media and entertainment habits shows audiences are more in control than ever and increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages.
The global findings overwhelmingly suggest personal Internet time rivals TV time. Among consumer respondents, 19 percent stated spending six hours or more per day on personal Internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing. 66 percent reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60 percent who reported the same levels of personal Internet usage. Consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community when it comes to mobile and Internet entertainment. Armed with PC, mobile and interactive content and tools, consumers are vying for control of attention, content and creativity. Despite natural lags among marketers, advertising revenues will follow consumers' habits. To effectively respond to this power shift, IBM sees advertising agencies going beyond traditional creative roles to become brokers of consumer insights; cable companies evolving to home media portals; and broadcasters and publishers racing toward new media formats. Marketers in turn are being forced to experiment and make advertising more compelling, or risk being ignored. "Consumers are demonstrating their desire for both wired and wireless access to content: an average of 81 percent of consumers surveyed globally indicated they've watched or want to watch PC video, and an average of 42 percent indicated they've watched or want to watch mobile video," said Bill Battino, Communications Sector managing partner, IBM Global Business Services. "Given the rising power of individuals and communities, media and entertainment industry players will have to become much better at providing permission-based advertising and related consumer-driven ratings services." The steady growth of consumer adoption of digital music, video, and other entertainment services -- though markets are still small by comparison to traditional media -- show households are no longer "one size fits all," and content providers and marketers must follow suit. 23 percent of respondents reported using a portable music service (e.g., iTunes); seven percent reported having a video content subscription for their mobile phones; 11 percent reported a PC-based music service; and 18 percent reported an online newspaper subscription. Saul Berman, IBM Media & Entertainment Strategy and Change practice leader, said, "The Internet is becoming consumers' primary entertainment source. The TV is increasingly taking a back seat to the cell phone and the personal computer among consumers age 18 to 34. Just as the 'Kool Kids' and 'Gadgetiers'(1) have replaced traditional land-lines with mobile communications, cable and satellite TV subscriptions risk a similar fate of being replaced as the primary source of content access." The IBM Institute for Business Value survey of more than 2,400 households in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Australia covered global usage and adoption of new multimedia devices and media and entertainment consumption on PCs, mobile phones, portable media players and more.
Television Viewing Shifts
In the largest digital video recorder market, 24 percent of U.S. respondents reported owning a DVR in their home and watching at least 50 percent of television programming on replay. Surprisingly, 33 percent in the U.S. reported watching more television content than before the DVR. More than twice as many U.K. consumers surveyed use video on demand services than own a DVR, and less than a third of U.K. consumers have changed their overall TV consumption as a result of DVR ownership. In Australia, despite owning a DVR, most respondents prefer live television or replay less than 25 percent of their programming.
Online Content Trends
Consumers are increasingly contributing to online video or social networking sites: nine percent of German and seven percent of U.S. respondents claim to have contributed to a user-generated content site; 26 percent of U.S. respondents reported contributing to a social networking site. While the numbers were slightly less from other countries like the UK (20 percent) and Japan (9 percent), they are also significant. Australia topped all countries surveyed with 36 percent contributing to social networking sites and nine percent contributing to video content sites. Of those who contributed content, an average of 58 percent worldwide did so for recognition and community, not monetary gain.
Mobile Content Trends
In the UK, nearly a third of users who watch mobile TV reduced their standard TV set viewing patterns as a result of new mobile device services. 18 percent said they reduced "normal" television by a little and another eight percent reduced "normal" television by a lot; four percent substituted television on their regular TV with their new device altogether. For respondents in Germany who had watched mobile video, 23 percent prefer to view user generated content, and 21 percent prefer video trailers or promotions.
Survey Methodology and Demographics
Conducted from mid-April through mid-June 2007 by the IBM Institute for Business Value, the Internet survey was split 64 percent female and 36 percent male. It proportionately reached demographic groups 18 years and over with approximately 45 percent surveyed between the ages of 18-34, 25 percent surveyed between ages of 35-44, and 30 percent surveyed age 45 and over. The questionnaire covered 38 questions and generated 885 respondents in the US, 559 respondents in the U.K., 338 respondents in Germany, 263 respondents in Australia and 378 respondents in Japan. Respondents reported a range of household salary levels, though the vast majority was under US $100,000.
This consumer study is a component of the upcoming report "The end of advertising as we know it," co-authored by Saul Berman and Bill Battino, planned for the fall. It is the latest in a series of thought leadership papers including: "The end of television as we know it," "Navigating the media divide: Innovating and enabling new business models" and "Beyond access: Raising the value of information in a cluttered market," providing recommendations for broadcasters, advertising agencies and media distributors including telecommunication and cable companies.
As part of its ongoing consumer research efforts, IBM is making the full survey results available for free download at: www.ibm.com/media/adsurvey07 Editors Note: IBM also stopped young people from all over the world on the streets of New York to ask whether they prefer spending their free time online or watching TV. IBM's informal street sample found surprisingly similar results to the official survey. Video of the interviews is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSx2llVmD-8. Broadcast-quality video is available for download by journalists at www.thenewsmarket.com/ibm. (1) In a previous IBM study, The end of television as we know it, IBM defined Gadgetiers as a video market segment that is drawn to the latest devices and are interested in participating and controlling the time and place of their media experiences; and Kool Kids, a segment that also prefers interactive and mobile media experiences and relies heavily on content sharing and social interaction.' IBM and CNN August 2007

TV is dying, says Google expert

One of the founding fathers of the internet has predicted the end of traditional television. The BBC iPlayer enables viewers to watch their favourite shows on their computers. Vint Cerf, who helped to build the internet while working as a researcher in America, said that television was approaching its "iPod moment"In the same way that people now download their favourite music onto their iPod, he said that viewers would soon be downloading most of their favourite programmes onto their computers.
"85 per cent of all video we watch is pre-recorded, so you can set your system to download it all the time," said Mr Cerf, who is now the vice-president of the Google, the world's largest search engine.
"You're still going to need live television for certain things - like news, sporting events and emergencies - but increasingly it is going to be almost like the iPod, where you download content to look at later."
Although television on demand has not yet become a mainstream activity in the UK, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have all invested vast sums of money in technology which enables viewers to watch their favourite shows on their computers.
Over the next four years, it is thought that the number of videos watched over the internet will quadruple, with people moving from short clips to hour-long programmes. Setting out his vision for the future of the internet, he said he wanted it to reach as many people as possible.
"I want more internet," he said. "I want every one of the six billion people on the planet to be able to connect to the internet - I think they will add things to it that will really benefit us." UK Telegraph August 2007

Kids' TV on Life Support (Use The Web!)

"Tax breaks needed for kids' TV
BBC Vision director proposes help for UK's struggling children's TV sector. According to Media Guardian.co.uk, Jana Bennett was speaking at the youth film festival Showcommotion in Sheffield. She floated three ideas, including the introduction of film production style tax breaks to help the sector, which she described as needing "significant intervention" to avoid the current "crisis".In addition to the tax breaks for children's TV production, Bennett asked whether all public service broadcasters should be forced to commit to children's production. Her third idea was for all UK children's TV broadcasters - including subscription channels like Nickelodeon, Disney and Cartoon Network - to be required to support original UK production, through a levy on profits or a commitment to transmitting a minimum number of hours input.However, Media Guardian went on to say that she ruled out using BBC licence fee money to fund commercial producers of children's television, insisting it "wouldn't help the sector as a whole".Bennett's ideas are not official BBC policy, but she said that: "Any of these would represent quite a significant intervention in the market. But maybe that's what it will take to resolve the crisis."The state of children's TV production was highlighted by the publication of the preliminary findings of an Ofcom review into children's programming. This showed that spending on first-run UK-originated kids programming fell by about a third between 2002 and 2006.The findings also showed that the cost per hour of children's programming among public service broadcasters - the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five - has fallen from £85,000 in 1998 to £56,800 in 2006.Ofcom will publish its full review into children's programming later this summer and will assess policy options in the autumn." Toy News July 2007

Social networking by 96% of teens & tweens weekly

"Social Networking Reaches Near Full Penetration Among Teens and 'Tweens
A whopping 96% of online tweens and teens connect to a social network at least once a week, according to a study and white paper being released today from Alloy Media & Marketing, a youth-oriented marketing firm. And nearly half engaged with a brand in the space in the past month.
According to research by Alloy Media, tweens and teens are, in many cases, connecting to their parents via a social network. The paper, commissioned from a recent national study conducted by Grunwald Associates, aimed to identify best practices for marketers trying to reach kids in social networks without annoying the infamously ad-averse generation. If there was a theme to their responses, said Samantha Skey, exec VP-strategic marketing at Alloy, it would be to meet teens and tweens on their terms. 'Do not interrupt me'"The operative distinction they're making is: 'Do not interrupt me en route to a connection with one of my peers or in the midst of a conversation,'" she said. "They're saying: 'Enhance or facilitate my social-networking experience. Offer me utilities to enhance my production process or tools to help me better able to express or engage myself.'" In other words, give them freebies: utilities, cool downloads, exclusive content and other items of value. "Mix their music or animate their backgrounds or offer a countdown to a special day," Ms. Skey said. Certain categories had endemic interest among kids, not surprisingly entertainment and technology. But Alloy was surprised to see a large number of respondents -- mostly girls -- were also interested in hearing more about categories such as personal-care products. Ms. Skey also suggested there were ways for marketers without natural youth interest to attach themselves to utilities and services that kids would be interested in. An insurance company could, for example, sponsor educational content or a company could launch a cause-related campaign or a campaign that involves points and rewards for things kids are interested in. "Straight forward old-school reward systems are attractive and enable choice," she said. Parent perspectiveThe study also looked at the involvement of parents. Ms. Skey said she hadn't felt as though the parent perspective on social networking had been thoroughly analyzed -- that it was limited to an alarmist view, thanks to news reports of sexual predators on MySpace. The study found that, in many cases, kids are actually connecting to their parents via a social network. "This generation of teens isn't embarrassed by it," Ms. Skey said. "And parents who are engaging online are more likely to be comfortable. ... Imagination is more daunting than the reality." The study asked about traditional media habits and found social networking is approaching parity with TV time among 9- to 17-year-olds. And when kids are multitasking, they're four times more likely to pay closer attention to whatever they're doing online than to whatever they're watching on the tube." AdAge.com June 2007

DVD retailers > online downloads

"Few industry experts have doubted that Best Buy and Blockbuster would find their way into the movie download biz soon, but confirmation came Thursday from one of their studio partners. In a conference call with analysts Thursday, Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer listed a number of companies with which the indie studio has made digital distribution deals. Along with existing online videostore operators like Apple and Amazon.com, he included Best Buy and Blockbuster, neither of which has yet announced its plans in the space." Variety June 2007

Neopets from web to Nick TV

"As part of several new initiatives for the residents of Neopia, Nickelodeon is launching the first series of animated Neopets Mini-Shows on June 23. Airing as interstitials, the snippets are aiming to introduce the denizens of the popular virtual pet site to Nick viewers and each ep will reveal clues that direct kids back to the main website to unlock games. In other Neo news, the site's launched broadband video player Neovision yesterday. The player will host user-generated content and upcoming original Mini-Shows. Nick is also bringing back The Altador Cup. The global gaming tournament brings users of www.neopets.com together to compete in a fantasy sport that's kind of cross between soccer and lacrosse." Kidscreen June 2007

Gong Anime

"Former Fox Kids and Jetix Europe programming exec Benoit Runel and André de Semlyen, ex-channel manager for Cartoon Network and Boomerang, have jumped into the new media mélée with Gong (www.gonganime.com). The just-launched on-demand channel aims to deliver anime to European and North American fans ages 15 to 30 via their computers, mobile phones and handheld devices. So far, the new net has carriage in 36 countries, including deals with TF1 Vision (France), BT Vision Download Store (UK), Orange TV (24/7 mobile channel in the UK and Poland), and Joost (Europe and North America)." Kidscreen May 2007

EM.TV exits kids TV

"EM.TV is looking for a buyer for its children and youth divisions EM.Entertainment and Junior.TV in order to concentrate on sports programming." Kidscreen May 2007

In-fusio's wrong business model and mobile games value

"Rumour has it that three years ago mobile games publisher In-Fusio was valued at 300 million euros by an unnamed and ultimately unsuccessful suitor. And as recently as 2004 the company raised $27 million. This week it was sold to fellow French publisher Zenops for 3 million euros (according to the industry grapevine). Some investors were no doubt reaching for their beta blockers. But whatever the reasons for its decline, In-Fusio should be remembered for its genuinely pioneering work.In 1998 the company created a cut-down proprietary version of Java called ExEn, which it embedded into handsets. In so doing In-Fusio launched downloadable and connected games before anyone else in the West.This headstart enabled it to raise millions of dollars and purchase companies such as Thumbworks, Cybiko and Mobile Scope. Ultimately, however, In-Fusio's decision to stick with its proprietary path led to its eventual sale. But does the the In-Fusio deal tell us anything about the current state of mobile games generally? Certainly, opinion among developers, publishers and operators is as changeable as the British weather.The analysts, at least, are feeling bullish. Having initialised its coverage of Glu earlier this month, Goldman Sachs forecast that global mobile games revenue will grow from $2.1 billion in 2006 to $8.4 billion in 2010 (equivalent to a 41 per cent CAGR).Nearly all the mobile games luminaries we polled agreed with Goldman Sachs' upward trend (naturally) but indicated the CAGR was a little aggressive - 15-20 per cent being a more realistic expectation.A more tangible indicator came from Orange UK this week. Its first Media Usage Index revealed that Orange World users downloaded an average of 250,000 mobile games a month in the first quarter of 2007 (700,000 for the whole period).This compared to a combined 250,000 ringtones, full-track music downloads and music video downloads per month and 65,000 wallpapers.We could definitely be onto something with this mobile games lark." Mobile Entertainment May 2007

"Mobile games worth US$3.3bn at consumer prices"

"Forecast to be $7.2bn by 2011." David Gosen, Iplay, May 2007

Games edge ahead of ringtones for Orange

"Games outstrip music and wallpaper downloads in Orange World sales figures. Orange UK's 15 million customers downloaded an average of 250,000 mobile games a month in the first quarter of 2007 (700,000 for the whole period), compared to 250,000 ringtones, full-track music downloads and music videos combined per month and 65,000 wallpapers.The fact that games is the leading individual content category by some margin will come as a surprise to many and will no doubt provide ammunition to publishers, many of who believe operators should spend more time promoting games than 'emerging' services like mobile TV and music downloads.The figures from Orange's newly-launched Media Usage Index (as revealed in The Guardian) also reveal the average mobile gamer is 30 years old. The top selling games for the quarter were Glu's Sonic the Hedgehog, THQW's Worms and Taito's Space Invaders (Anniversary Edition) the top three choices." Mobile Entertainment May 2007

Li'l Bush From Mobile To TV

"A shortform animated program created for mobile phones is making an unprecedented jump to primetime television courtesy of Comedy Central.The cable network has greenlighted the half-hour original series "Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States," which re-imagines President Bush and key execs in his administration as elementary school misfits. Six episodes from writer-producer Donick Cary ("The Simpsons") have been ordered to air on Comedy Central next year."Bush" got its start in September as six five-minute clips offered by Amp'd Mobile, a U.S.-based wireless service that packages video entertainment programming with cell phone service."Bush" represents an unlikely reversal of the one-way flow of programming from television to other digital platforms, where networks and studios are attempting to extend franchises in search of new revenue. That said, many a programmer has cited the Internet and mobile arenas as potential breeding grounds for fare that could translate back to TV." Hollywood Reporter December 2006

Star Farm Edgar & Ellen

"Star Farm Productions' flagship property, Edgar & Ellen, is gearing up for multiple deals following extensive broadcast, publishing, and online exposure.
When Trish Lindsay, Sara Berliner, and Rick Carton co-founded Star Farm Productions in May 2002, they set out to revolutionize the way content is created, and they did it with today's digital generation in mind.
This talent has been particularly visible in Star Farm's flagship property, Edgar & Ellen, which artfully combines traditional and new media. Currently supported by books, animated TV, and an online community, the property is poised for further market expansion, thanks to licensing agency Lisa Marks & Associates.
The initial inspiration for Edgar & Ellen came from Carton, illustrator of the "Edgar & Ellen" book series, and his brother, Billy, at their mom's kitchen table.
As the company's flagship property, Edgar & Ellen championed the Star Farm model of creating stories in multiple media and releasing these stories into the marketplace simultaneously. "Edgar & Ellen first appeared in a six-book series (now with Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing) and an online community (http://www.edgarandellen.com/), and then moved into animated television, via shorts and specials on Nicktoons Network and YTV in Canada," explains Lindsay. But the twins have even more up their sleeves, as the book series—which currently boasts 14 publishers covering 12 languages and 67 countries—expands, and Star Farm gears up for the release of the Edgar & Ellen TV series (co-produced with Bardel Entertainment) in August on Nicktoons Network. So far, deals are in place to roll out the series in 15 countries. Plans also are underway to add graphic novels and a live-action feature film. As a next step, a major retail program will take place later this year.
"Getting kids' feedback is essential to the story development process at Star Farm. Stories are presented to kids and kid experts such as parents, teachers, and librarians," explains Lindsay. "In the case of Edgar & Ellen, the book series is kid-influenced. Kids read manuscripts as they were being written, tweaked, and reworked long before the books hit shelves. Major Web activities and applications also were shown to kids as they were being developed." Additionally, she says, "the upcoming TV series not only was researched, it is 10 percent kid-inspired. Kids sent in their personal ideas for the 2-minute shorts, which we then animated and made part of the half-hour show. In addition, Edgar & Ellen TV shows, in varying stages of development—from script to animatic to final animation—were, and continue to be, reviewed regularly by kids and schools."
The success of the first book series also received a healthy boost from the Edgar & Ellen online community.
"Patience has been a dwindling virtue among many entertainment property owners as licensing revenues from consumer products are being sought earlier and earlier, to offset production and development costs," explains Marks. "Unfortunately," she continues, "there have been too many cases where early-to-market has translated to early-to-rest for these programs, as consumer awareness and demand have not adequately led product development and retail distribution. In the case of Edgar & Ellen, all major media elements have been put into place, and significant retail, marketing, and promotional programs have been established in advance of the comprehensive consumer products effort."
Timing, agrees Lindsay, is key to the development of Edgar & Ellen in both multiple platforms and retail programs. "In the case of multiple media, Edgar & Ellen first gained an audience through publishing and the online community, before further growing that audience through TV shorts and specials. We are continuing to grow Edgar & Ellen internationally, and also have deals throughout Europe and the rest of the world." For licensing, she adds, "we are looking to the U.S. as a model to roll out international programs by territory. As awareness and success stories are built domestically, international plans will focus on growing the brand, as well as focusing efforts on cross-partner opportunities and securing retail exclusives." License Global April 2007

US kids digital world research

"27% of kids aged 8-11 and 61% of 12-14s have cell phones; 22% of 8-11s and 45% of 12-14s own MP3 players; 18% of 8-11s and 61% of 12-14s use instant messaging; 74% of kids have their own TV sets; 20% have web access in their bedrooms; 29% of parents say their kids know more than they do about downloading music; 86% of 8-14s are gaming online; 51% are watching TV shows and videos online." Living In A Digital World from Nickelodeon

Nicktropolis

"Viacom-owned Nickelodeon previewed its latest interactive offering, a “virtual city” called Nicktropolis, its most ambitious digital venture yet, to include some social networking and gaming experiences. Nicktropolis offers a variety of interactive experiences, such as a social network, chat rooms and downloadable video. And while Nicktropolis will eventually make room for user-generated content, the site’s most prominent feature is its games section. http://www.nick.com/nicktropolis/game/index.jhtml " Imedia Connection January 2007

The Zimmer Twins

"Bejuba! Entertainment has picked up the international distribution rights to Toronto, Canada-based zinc Roe Design's award-winning interactive series The Zimmer Twins. Bejuba! will be shopping the property around to international broadcasters interested in providing their audiences with a user-generated content experience. The multi-platform project invites kids to create their own animated shorts using online editing tools and animated assets, and these amateur clips are then broadcast on-air. Zimmer Twins has already been licensed to ABC in Australia and will be part of the pubcaster's RollerCoaster block on ABC TV, ABC2 and its free-to-air digital channel. The series originally bowed on Canada's animation destination, Teletoon, in March 2005." Kidscreen May 2007

45% of Europeans Watch Internet TV

"Almost half of Europe watch television programmes via the internet, according to new research. A report from mobile company Motorola reveals 45 per cent of broadband users in Europe including UK, France and Germany, watch their favourite TV online. Viewers prefer to watch TV online because of freedom of choice giving them the possibility to watch what they want when they want, the report said. French TV addicts lead online TV viewing with 59 per cent watching their favourite shows via the web compared to 43 per cent of Brits. The study, which was conducted amongst 2,500 broadband users, also revealed that 57 per cent of viewers want the ability to go online via the TV during a live broadcast while 35 per cent would like to be able to pause, rewind or fast forward live broadcasts. Later this year, the BBC is to launch the iPlayer, which will let you watch programmes online for seven days after their first TV broadcast." Web User May 3 2007

Doctor Who viral marketing

"The BBC has produced a comic book maker for its Doctor Who website...the moderated application allows users to drag and drop characters and text into an animated storyboard, as well as upload their own images...in order to keep interest in the website high." NMA 120407

Old media types going new media pt 5: Mr Men

"Mobile platforms will play a major role in the distribution of new content from the Mr Men brand. The mobile space will be a core element of the launch when an animated TV series based around the characters starts on Five next year. The sketches from the series' 52 episodes will range from ten seconds to three minutes in length...Chorion, rights owner for the Mr Men & Little Miss properties, is set to make them available over multiple platforms." New Media Age 190407

MySpace Trailer Park

MySpace Trailer Park broadcasts trailers of films up to 6 months before their release and enables users to build a community around each film.

Old media types going new media pt 4: Purple Ronnie

Coolabi acquired Purple Ronnie from creator Giles Andreae. The report in New Media Age 120407 claimed that the company plans to take the character onto the internet and mobile for the first time.

Advertisers Going New Media Pt 1: McDonalds

"In a little more than 18 months, Mary Dillon, athlete, marathoner and the mother of four children, has taken the world's largest hamburger chain to venues its founder Ray Kroc could not have imagined.While Dillon, 45, who was named executive vice president and global chief marketing officer of McDonald's Corp. in September 2005, hasn't yet run a guerrilla marketing campaign, she has introduced the buttoned-down company to YouTube, Webisodes (short Web-based episodes), cell phone text messaging in Japan and podcasts, all places where its young adult and "forever young" customers now are found.

"It creates buzz and fun about the brand," Dillon said.While Dillon is not reinventing the "I'm lovin' it" marketing message made famous by her predecessor, Larry Light, in 2003, she is tweaking how that message is getting to the fast-food giant's customers by crafting campaigns for the Internet, mobile phones and other alternative outlets." Baltimore Sun 240407

AOL Time Warner Makes Programmes For Web Only

"AOL Tunes in Net Programming
Time Warner unveils Internet unit shows.April 18, 2007
By Leah Messinger
Time Warner on Tuesday unveiled a string of original programming to begin airing on AOL at the end of the year, the latest example of a traditional media company expanding in online entertainment.
But this time around, experts aren’t shouting about the death of cable and TV. Instead, they’re describing AOL’s efforts as necessary steps to stay relevant in what one analyst referred to as the “Post-TV entertainment paradigm.”
AOL’s newly unveiled lineup includes five online programs that will tie in with either cable shows, company-produced movies, or successful game shows. Specifically, the company will air an online version of the Gold Rush game show, an Ellen DeGeneres show tie-in, and a competition to win a tropical island.
The announcement follows last week’s partnership of CBS with Microsoft, Joost, Comcast, and others to distribute shows via a new Internet Audience Network. Last month, NBC Universal joined with News Corp. for an online video distribution network.
“You have to place your bets more broadly now,” said analyst Greg Sterling. He cited Comcast’s recent purchase of online movie ticketer Fandango as yet another example. Comcast also plans to launch Fancast this summer as a national entertainment site.
Analysts say AOL’s plan could make it more attractive to viewers. One aspect of that plan is to focus on original programming produced by the likes of Mark Burnett, DreamWorks Animation, and Endemol.
It’s not only about the big names behind the effort, but also that the site will feature original content. By contrast, the focus of CBS’ recent deal is on more widespread syndication of pre-existing shows.
Four out of five of the new programs are game shows, which are cheaper to produce. Analysts say AOL is likely to use the lower-cost shows to explore how willing viewers will be to get their TV from a computer. “They could find out much more quickly on the Internet whether these things will have traction,” said Mr. Sterling.
The most significant challenge may be for the companies creating the shows, which integrate advertising and combine community judging, social networking, and video.
“It’s a whole different set of players that we have to deal with,” said Endemol’s vice president of digital media, Jon Vlassopulos. He added that to develop the shows, his company is now actively seeking additional staff with more digital interactive and gaming experience." Red Herring

Internet television growth

"The number of IPTV subscribers grew 166% in 2006, hitting 7.2 million worldwide, with continued strong growth forecast through 2010
IPTV service provider revenue jumped 178% in 2006 to $2.8 billion worldwide, with growth expected to continue in the double to triple digits every year worldwide
EMEA is the leading region for IPTV service revenue, accounting for 49% of the worldwide total in 2006, followed by Asia Pacific with 35%
Worldwide IP set-top box revenue dipped a bit in the fourth quarter but nearly tripled from 2005 to 2006, reaching $455 million (up 195%)
Motorola maintains its worldwide lead in the IP set-top box market in 2006; Amino Communications moves up to 2nd place, while Yuxing moves down to 3rd." infonetics.com

Vivendi mobile game promoted via MySpace

"Vivendi is promoting its latest mobile title Surviving High School 07 through MySpace, offering competition winners a chance to appear in the game.
Five randomly selected winners will have an in-game avatar named after them and created to look like their likenesses, as well as receiving a Motorola handset with the game pre-loaded.
"This creative contest involves some of the most notable names in interactive entertainment and communication with Motorola, MySpace, a variety of wireless providers and Vivendi Games Mobile all coming together to select the next mobile gaming stars," commented Paul Maglione, president of Vivendi Games Mobile.
"We wanted to take customisation and community involvement to the next level and create one of the most unique opportunities imaginable for mobile gamers and MySpace users."
Surviving High School 07 is an original IP developed for Vivendi Games Mobile by Centerscore." Mobile-industry.biz April 18 2007

Lose weight playing videogames?!

"DANIEL Jaramillo stands like an aerobics instructor in front of 40 fourth-graders, arguing over what game level to play.
"Break a sweat?" he asks before selecting a stage.
"No," they answer, though they've been dancing for at least 15 minutes.
The exercise has gone this way: Jamarillo picks a song in a video game called "Dance Dance Revolution." He stands on a dance pad, and as the level begins, he tries to move in time with the arrows that whisk their way down a projection screen behind him. The class follows Jaramillo's lead and tries to keep up on their pads. They shuffle about, madly missing a few steps.
When the song's finished, some of the kids are out of breath.
Again, Jaramillo asks if they've perspired. The children refuse to admit anything. They want to go faster. Jaramillo responds, picking a level with a thumping techno beat.
The Cesar Chavez Elementary School students cheer.
For them, video games usually mean sitting down and thumbing their way through a shooter, virtual soccer or "Smackdown! vs. Raw 2006," but instead, they're at the Moscone Center in San Francisco dancing around and enjoying it. They were taking part in the recent International Health, Racquet and Sportclub Association's trade show (IHRSA) and convention.
At a time when childhood obesity is in the headlines and critics are blaming everything from television to fast food for the problem, video games have not gone unnoticed.
A 2004 study by the University of Texas at Austin said that overweight kids were more likely to play video games moderately. Researchers checked the body mass index of more than 2,800 kids while recording their activities. Another 2004 report in Obesity Research associated gaming to overweight kids in Switzerland. In that study, researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University Hospital of Zurich measured the health of over 800 elementary school-aged students and calculated their relative activity.
"A lot of children aren't getting enough exercise," says Michael Levy, the chairman of IHRSA, a trade group for the health and fitness industry. "Nine million children are obese."
But what titles such as "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Sports" are trying to do is change that couch potato image of players.
"This is a video game for kids who need physical education but don't like sports," said Marc Franklin, a spokesman for Konami, the company that makes "DDR."
The game as a fitness device has attracted the interest of West Virginia officials who have installed the title in all of their public schools, he said. An accompanying study found that children who consistently played the game improved their health.
"The fitness level of kids increased," says Franklin. "It stopped kids from gaining weight and improved their self-confidence."
Even adults can lose weight playing video games. Blogger Mickey DeLorenzo caused a stir online last year with his Wii Sports Experiment Web site (wiinintendo.net). After getting the console, he spent six weeks playing the packed-in title for 30 minutes a day, trying to keep to the same schedule, and he lost nine pounds.
"Finding out that it worked was a complete shock," he said. "I kept track of my weight three times a day, I would write it down in a journal. I had figured maybe 2 to 4 pounds, but when I finished calculating and saw 9 pounds, I knew this was going to be a big deal."
During his personal study, he found Wii boxing burned the most calories (125 in a 15-minute period) followed by tennis (92) and bowling (77).
DeLorenzo says that he believes "Wii Sports" can have an affect on childhood obesity.
"If a kid is playing Wii Sports instead of watching TV, of course they'll be burning calories," he stated via e-mail. "Will it stop childhood obesity? Probably not on a global scale, but, like I said, in certain cases, it will replace nonactive activities with active ones and that's better than nothing."
Josh Trout, a Cal State Chico professor in the kinesiology department, hears stories like DeLorenzo's often. But despite the personal anecdotes, he says there haven't been many scientific studies on gaming and weight loss.
Still, without much research, he says that "exergaming" has been gaining momentum in the educational field.
"Every year I see a few more booths dealing with exergaming," Trout says. "I think P.E. programs are buying into it because it sells. Kids buy into it. My guess is that Nintendo Wii will be squeaking its way into P.E. curriculum. As long as kids are getting their heart rate up, it's a good thing."
For fourth-grade teacher Geri Almanza, there's a practical reason for having "DDR" in her classroom and students' homes. As one of the staff members watching the Cesar Chavez elementary students, she couldn't help but play the game herself.
Almanza is familiar with "DDR." She's played it before in the arcades in Mexico City. And now, dancing with her students, she sees plenty of ways in which the game can help them. It can be used for rainy days or afternoons when it's too hot outside, she says.
For a generation of kids raised on video games, these titles are a way to be active while having fun. It's not running laps in gym class, but it does have its own benefits.
Alamanza says a majority of her kids spend hours in front of the TV playing anyway, and for children who live in urban environments, this game may be more important because it could be one of the only ways they can get exercise.
"A lot of these kids live in the Mission District and they don't have backyards," she says. "It makes exercising accessible to them."
For fourth-grader Sergio Recinos, playing "DDR" was a blast. He says he usually plays war games, and this was his first time with a dance title.
"The notes were going so fast, you had trouble seeing the arrows," he says, but that didn't discourage him. "I want to play this game every day."
There's a reason for this, though. Like in many games, the developer presents you with a challenge, gives you feedback and there's an innate desire to get better, to beat it.
In this case, Sergio says he has big plans. He wants to perfect his dance steps." By Gieson Cacho, MEDIANEWS STAFF

EA & Endemol

"New online avatar concept Virtual Me to debut with new series of reality show:
Super-publisher EA has entered into a creative partnership with media giant Endemol, the firm responsible for shows like Big Brother, Fame Academy and Deal or No Deal. EA will be combining its avatar creation technology with Endemol’s most popular TV formats to enable consumers to meet, compete and socialise in a new online world.“With Virtual Me we are at the forefront of a new, hybrid form of entertainment that takes gaming beyond the console,” said EA executive vice president and general manager Gerhard Florin. “Endemol is a great partner to help us bring together the best of TV and video games for an offering that can appeal to mass market audiences and change the face of entertainment.”Chief creative officer at Endemol Peter Bazalgette added: “We’re told that people are starting to spend more time online than they are watching TV. Both markets are now important and this has huge implications for content creators. Our opportunity with Electronic Arts is to develop ideas that fully embrace the way people are consuming entertainment today.” "

Viacom vs Google's YouTube

Copyright complexity in the new media age:

"What happens when two of media's biggest players butt heads? Lawyers see dollar signs.
That's because the $1 billion lawsuit Viacom filed against Google in March 2007 could generate $350 million or more in legal fees, industry experts estimate.
Will the two companies rack up those kind of bills? Probably not: Conventional wisdom holds that Google and Viacom are engaged in a very public game of chicken. Viacom, according to that logic, has accused Google's YouTube of "massive copyright infringement" simply as a negotiation tactic."

Old media types need to go new media pt 1: 4kids

"4Kids Entertainment's results finished the 2006 financial year with a net income of $71.8 million, a figure that is appreciably less than the 80.6 million of 2005. The company registered a net loss of a million dollars, against the net profit of 5.1 million of the previous year. According to Alfred R. Kahn, CEO of the company, the "disappointing" results were due to "the decreased licensing revenue from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as a decline in ad sales from 4Kids TV"." Kidscreen

Old media types going new media pt 3: Turner

"Cartoon Network and Viz Media's joint online portal Toonami Jetstream (www.toonamiJetstream.com) has added Zatch Bell! to its lineup; the site launched in 2006." Kidscreen

Old media types going new media pt 2: 3Line

"Ex-CiTV controller Estelle Hughes has teamed up with partners Teresa Reed and Mark Taylor to launch new production and consulting outfit 3Line Media in London, England.
The company will be set up to offer services in three distinctive areas: creative production, production management and executive consultancy. The production department will be headed by Taylor, owner and founder of Bristol-based animation house A Productions. The management arm is under the purview of Reed, former head of production at Chorion, and Hughes's consulting unit deals with all aspects of the media industry, from channel launches, to co-productions, to broadcast schedules.3Line also intends to develop its own IP, including a preschool animated series and an interactive mobile series for young adults that are already in the works." Kidscreen

Old media types going new media pt 1: Eisner

"Former Disney chief Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company has announced the formation of a new independent studio that will produce and distribute original content for the internet and other digital platforms.

The newly dubbed prodco Vuguru is entering the market with the goal of providing story-driven narrative content for the digital space. Its first kick at the can will be teen centric Prom Queen, an 80 x 90-second serialized drama that will look at the final two months of high school leading up to the senior prom.

The eps will be on PromQueen.tv, as well as Veoh.com and on youtube.com. The Tornante Company is also be looking to secure deals for other platforms including mobile. On the promotions side, the series has already inked sponsorship deals with FJI Water, Pom Wonderful,Teleflora.com,Victoria's Secret Pink and HotKiss." Kidscreen

Reasons To Get Into New Media

Everyone knows that new media has forever changed the old media world, but there are still lots of companies involved with licensing that have yet to take the plunge and reinvent their businesses.

Please feel confident and understand that new media actually removes a lot of the frustrations of trying to get your job done in old media.

Take the typical case of a newly created animated character. The creator loves the character and wants lots of people to see it and enjoy it, then make him famous and rich by watching the animations and buying the spin-off products.

Fair enough, but in the old media world his only option to create global public awareness was to persuade sizeable companies to produce and broadcast the animations on TV or in a movie.

Since it costs a fair few thousand in any currency to achieve such an aim, the creator had to face a sticky issue - loss of control over his destiny and his creative authority.

Yep, the companies putting up the cash don't want some pesky entertainer messing up their balance sheets, their schedules and their merchandising departments.

But let's say that the miracle occurs and, after some years elapse, the animations finally get on air and the next step is to offer character merchandise to retailers. Oh dear.

That can be very difficult and take a very long time. And even if the head office buyer says your stuff can go in her shops, the store managers will appear determined to hide the stock, so that no irritating members of the public can find it, with a view to buying it.

All hail then, the world wide web and its many wonders: audience testing - when can you start?; global audience - no problem; clearly visible merchandise - visit the ecommerce shop; character downloads for mobile phones - ready in a jiffy and for a snip.

Imagine the creator building an Arctic Monkeys style momentum with the public online, without some stuffy old corporations holding him up.

Then, he can get the same corporations lining up, begging for a licence so that they can share the benefits of the animated character's popularity. Which all keeps the destiny and creativity right under his control.

Glossary

Scared of technobabble? Fear no more! The easy-to-follow new media jargon buster will have you running rings around wise-ass tech heads at networking events. For smalltalk superiority, visit www.atnewmedia.com/glossary

The Beautiful Game Is A Licensing Pain

Football is the most popular sport in the world and it is understandable that interactive content companies want to offer games.

However, the intellectual property rights situation could not be more complicated.

There are two main choices: a playing simulation game or a management game.

For a playing simulation game, gamers will expect to see favourite footballers, representing club and national teams, in stadia, wearing branded kit, managed by famous coaches, kicking branded balls and trying to win famous tournaments:

- Knockout cups, national club leagues, international club leagues, continental championships and, ultimately, the FIFA World Cup.

For a management game, they would not expect to see all of those elements physically, but they would expect them all to be named.

The major US sports have a co-ordinated approach to all of this. Each governing body - whether the NBA or MLB or NHL or NFL - can organise 2 licences to deliver all of those elements: one for the players and one for the rest.

Football offers the opposite, with the most complex and unravelled rights situation imaginable.

One reason for the unstoppable success of EA Sports’ FIFA annual franchise on consoles, which they are now managing themselves for mobile, is the licensing effort they put in.

There are about 170 licences incorporated in the FIFA games and Electronic Arts employs a whole department of lawyers to manage the negotiations, variations and renewals.

Nobody notices, but there is actually a lot missing from a FIFA game, because even the mighty EA cannot get the rights. For example, try finding anything Dutch…clubs and players in the Netherlands mostly refuse to license their rights.

EA has been adding wireless rights to its contracts, which is another barrier to entry for specialist mobile games companies.

What can you do about it?

Urge the football authorities to license collectively?

Make a better game than FIFA?

License one element to endorse the game: player or manager or kit brand?

These and other options also have complications. You will need an experienced licensing expert to help you.

Video clips for mobile

The exciting and rapid growth of TV and video within the mobile content industry is giving rise to some very significant intellectual property rights issues.

Leaving aside streaming television, the main area is video clips for mobiles. Many mobile content providers are actively seeking rights.

There are two main types of potential content - footage that has already been broadcast on television and footage that has not.

Among content providers, famous TV comedy series are the most popular genre. To secure the mobile rights is complicated, because there are so many rights owners potentially involved. And none of them foresaw the mobile content revolution when they made their telly shows.

For example, “Only Fools And Horses” is probably the UK’s favourite comedy series of all time, containing some of the most-loved comedy moments.

To get the mobile rights to those scenes where Del Boy falls through the bar or the chandelier falls into the next room, who needs to give you a contract?

The scriptwriter John Sullivan? The broadcaster the BBC? The ‘talent’ David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst? The composer of the theme and incidental music? Anyone else?

Nobody knows yet and they are all talking about how to resolve it.

This is encouraging content providers to pursue rights that are cleaner, quicker and easier to secure. In particular, new productions that are made with the mobile phone in mind.

In response, a worldwide army of talented animators and film-makers is emerging, focussed on the needs of the mobile platform and its users.

They are delighted to have their work exposed to a broader public. Therefore, dealing with them is a lot quicker and easier than dealing with proven ‘old media’ people.

An early example is ‘”Cat Bastard”, licensed to Cyoshi Mobile by the creator and featuring funny and bloody 20 second animated clips. A modern day “Road Runner and Wiley Coyote”, except the cat always kills the dog.
It will not be long before the tables turn and television companies start coming to the mobile content industry, seeking the rights to make TV shows featuring characters made popular on mobile.

Slicensing

‘Slicensing’ is a brilliantly descriptive word used by brand owners, to remind themselves that it is always unwise to grant any licensee more rights than it can fully exploit.

It refers to the practice of slicing up rights i.e. defining each licence according to the true development and distribution capabilities of the licensee.

The opportunity cost of giving too many rights away invariably pains the brand owner, when other potential licensees come along later with viable propositions that cannot be pursued, because the rights are lying idle in the hands of the first licensee.

For example, the following definition would lead to regrets: “An exclusive worldwide licence for interactive games, to be played on all platforms now existing or emerging during the term of the agreement.”

Just as similar wording did in the case of Paramount Pictures’ ten year Star Trek licence with Activision, which began in the mid-1990s with PC, PlayStation, Game Boy and N64 in mind, but without anticipating the emergence of games for mobile, web, plug-in, IDTV etc.

That later prevented Paramount managing the Star Trek brand’s entry into the new markets and the agreement reportedly ended early, with acrimony between licensor and licensee.

Much more sensible to phrase the licence specifically, for example: “A non-exclusive licence for North America and the European Union for interactive games on the platform of mobile telephones.”

That would leave the brand owner free to reach agreements with strong publishers for every other platform and territory.

Naturally, the licensee/ publisher has the opposite point of view. Each would love to receive a broad grant of rights. Maybe even sub-license some rights to expert publishers for each other territory or platform, to lay off some of their costs.

However, licensees will understand that there is little point having rights that you cannot exploit. Also, that the broader the grant of rights, the higher the minimum guarantee of royalties required by the brand owner.

Fair and reasonable allocation of rights by the licensor according to the true strengths of the licensee is good for both parties.

Mobile Market Entry

Interesting issues are raised by the recent announcement that Kayak Synergenix has secured the licence from Sony Pictures to produce mobile games, based on the much-anticipated 2006 movie of the best-selling book ‘The Da Vinci Code’.

Why? Because we all thought that Sony Pictures’ entry into the mobile content market with its brands was being handled by its internal mobile department.

What happened?

The last movie to be licensed for mobile games by Sony Pictures was an agreement I negotiated for ‘Men In Black 2’ on behalf of Digital Bridges (now called I-Play) in 2002.

After that, Sony Pictures established its internal mobile team and, since then, no brands have been available for licensing.

Along with other subjective people, I rudely told them that it would not work, that their core business is making movies and TV series, that dealing with network operators and porting mobile content to multiple handsets is complicated and costly.

That they should heed the comparable past lessons of the costly failures of internal console game departments within certain Hollywood studios.

That they would have to recruit a large and expensive team worldwide and the revenues would not justify it, in the short to medium term.

Have we been proved correct? It has been noticeable that many of the talented people employed at Sony Pictures Mobile have moved on to other interesting roles recently.

Warner Bros followed the same in-house route as Sony Pictures. Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Studios have so far used the licensing method.

The strategic choice of market entry is an important one for brand owners large and small. They must balance risk versus return.

It can be boiled down to a choice of four market entry methods, based on selecting the method of handling the four main functions. The functions are Development, Technology, Marketing and Distribution.

The methods are Self-Publish (do everything), Co-Publish (share functions), Self Develop (make the content but outsource everything else) or License (grant brand rights and enable the Licensee to manage the functions.)

"How Much Is The Licence?"

‘How much does the licence cost?’ is a question that brand owners hear often from prospective licensees.

It sounds like a fair question. It is not easy to answer. There is no price list in licensing and no two licensing agreements are the same.

All of the variable terms of the licence must be balanced during the negotiations. You want a 10 year term? The minimum guarantee should go up. You want to pay a high advance? The royalty rate should come down.

The main variable terms are: Property, Products, Territory, Term, Royalty, Advance and Guarantee.

Other variable terms include: Exclusivity, Approvals procedures, Renewal options, Performance targets and Marketing investment.

There are no hard and fast rules for arriving at the advance and guarantee, but there are tried and tested methods.

The best way is to start with the licensee’s sales forecast. If you publish mobile games, how many of the games would you expect to sell during the term of the licence?

The forecast is multiplied by the royalty rate, to arrive at the royalty forecast.

The rule of thumb states that 25% of the royalty forecast should be paid as the advance and 75% guaranteed during the term.

For example, under a 2 year licence with a 10% royalty rate, the licensee forecasts 500,000 downloads of the games and receives €2 per game.

500,000 x €2 = €1,000,000 x 10% = €100,000. Advance €25,000 and guarantee €75,000 by the end of the 2 years.

Like all forecasting, it is educated guesswork, but this is a fairer method than the brand owner plucking a figure from thin air. In most cases, that figure is far more than the licensee is willing to accept.

However, in the mobile content market guidelines derived from the mature licensed merchandise market have been largely ignored, due to the ‘land grab’ mentality of the industry.

Licensees initially chased the brands that they thought operators and consumers would like. Licensors initially grabbed the biggest cheques.

As the market matures, more considered and business-like choices will be made.

Approvals Issues

The approvals process is the Achilles heel of licensing.

What is it?

Who is involved?

Why does it go wrong?

How can you manage it smoothly?

Under the terms of any licensing agreement, the intellectual property is ‘on loan’ from the licensor (brand owner) to the licensee (content provider.)

Every use made by the licensee of the brand - for products, services or marketing collateral of any kind - requires approval in advance from the licensor.

Network operators add complication, by taking the original materials and surrounding them with their own marketing collateral.

If anything is released into public view that a licensor has not approved in advance, they are entitled to insist that it is withdrawn.

When that happens, it means a lot of cost and hassle for the content provider and its customers.

Brand owners fear one thing above everything else – loss of control over their brand image.

To a content provider, the project may be the most important thing in the world, but for a famous brand owner it is merely one of many businesses.

If it becomes embarrassing, the brand owner is entitled to amputate it, before it infects the whole brand.

Going through approvals makes content development a lot harder. Under time pressures and with a lack of assets, it is very tempting to short-cut the licensor’s requirements.

Also, licensors can unreasonably reject approvals submissions, or contradict their comments from an earlier submission stage.

To transform pitfalls into potential, planning and communication is the key. Always try to follow these steps:

- Plan a production schedule that allows enough time for licensor approvals and stick to it;

- Licensee and licensor must meet at the beginning of the development process and explain clearly to each other what they need;

- Licensor must provide the best assets and guidance that it can;

- Approvals submissions should be made at 3 main stages: concept design, prototype and pre-production.

The licensor understands its brand’s strengths best and the licensee understands the mobile content market best. When the two meet in the middle, success is assured.

Frog Spawns Merchandise

Mobile was never going to be a proper media platform until it began to generate its own original intellectual properties and take them into the mainstream. That turning point has been reached and it is frog-shaped.

The Annoying Thing aka Crazy Frog has exploded into the public consciousness worldwide in a short six month period.

Sweden is the home country of the two creators. Daniel Malmedahl developed the sound, which inspired Erik Wernquist to animate the character.

Originating on the internet, the character and the associated ‘beh ding ding’ sound were launched on to mobile phones by Jamster in early 2005 and became their most popular character and ringtone.

From advertising mobile downloads, Jamster broke UK advertising frequency records as it moved on to advertising a single, which mixed the sound with the Axel F tune.

According to independent media analysts, Jamster spent £10 million on UK television airtime and generated over 36,000 messages in the month of May. The nearest high frequency advertiser was McDonalds, with under 10,000 messages.

The single shot to number one in the UK charts for 4 weeks, outselling Coldplay and U2 and going platinum with over 600,000 sales. The first single and an album are now being released worldwide.

All of this has made The Annoying Thing the hottest character in worldwide licensing today, with scores of licensees signing up to produce hundreds of items of merchandise.

The opportunities for the rights owners are certainly plentiful, but so are the associated pitfalls. Many individuals and organisations all over the world queue up for a piece of the action when a property is hot -and few of them are interested in protecting the interests of the rights owner.

Reconciling permission with control is the key to grasping such a tiger by its tail and only experienced licensing professionals can know how to achieve that.

THE NEW MEDIA CHANNEL

“I only use my mobile phone for making voice calls.”

If I had been given a fiver every time that comment was made to me by a traditional consumer products licensing manager, I would be able to afford a Vertu handset. Vertu is the Rolls Royce of mobile phones, with prices starting at about £3,000.

Technophobes, generally aged 35 plus, may not contemplate learning how and why to download logos, ringtones, games, video clips, pictures, voice messages and more. But technophiles, generally under 35, regard it as an exciting and entertaining activity.

A marketer’s job is not to consider their personal preferences, but to respond to the wants and needs of their customers.

The younger generation has grown up with technology and the mobile phone is the first media device to be personal to the user. TVs, cinemas, computers and radios have to be shared with other people.

And suddenly, at the 2005 New York Licensing Show in June, it was apparent that the licensing industry has woken up to the potential of mobile content:

- Famous brands from all sources are being licensed in to mobile content, for example movies such as Star Wars and videogames such as Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding.

- Brand creators desperate to build public awareness, to support licensing campaigns, are seeing mobile as an alternative media platform. They reckon it is easier and quicker than trying to get an animated TV series on air.

- For the first time, there are original properties going the other way: emerging from the mobile media platform into mainstream merchandising, most notably The Annoying Thing aka Crazy Frog.

Best of all for Licensors and Licensing Agents, suffering from reducing royalties in traditional categories, mobile content companies are paying far too much for licences currently, because the market is new and very competitive and because they have start-up investor money behind them.

The future of mobile content is very bright, but just like any product category, licensors must pick the best licensees according to their production and distribution capabilities, as well as their sensitivity to the brand’s values.

The Legal Basis For Intellectual Property

Proud of your property? Confused about copyright? Troubled by trade marks? Perplexed about patents?

What makes intellectual property rights legally enforceable and how do your protect your company?

My I.P. lawyer friends will hopefully shower me with gifts, for mentioning first that you should seek their expert guidance.

A ‘quick start’ guide is:

An intellectual property might be a design, a logo, a text, a software programme, a model, a manufacturing process or similar creation.

The creator of the original work automatically holds the copyright, unless they agree to assign it to someone else.

An example of assignment would be a photo-shoot, commissioned by a company to promote its product range, when the photographer agrees that copyright in the pictures will belong to the client.

A trade mark is usually the brand name and logo of a company or product or service. The first trade mark ever registered in the UK was the red triangle logo of Bass Ales.

It also covers distinctive shapes associated with a brand, most famously the Coca Cola bottle.

A trade mark is not a trade mark, until it has been registered and accepted by the appropriate authority in each country or region.

The legal and registration requirements vary by country, as does the cost.

Including legal advice, in the UK allow up to £1,000 to register one trade mark in one class of goods.

There is a UK Trade Mark Registrar and also a European Union ‘harmonisation’ trade mark registration facility.

There are 42 ‘Classes Of Goods’ and it is necessary to register the trade mark in each class that is relevant to your I.P.

Class 9 is the most relevant for interactive games in the UK.

Once protected, an intellectual property, if used without the approval of the owner, will result in a challenge to the unauthorised user.

Piracy and its implications will be the subject of later articles.

More information about UK registration of trade marks, patents and designs is available online at www.patent.gov.uk

Does licensing stifle creativity?

Games developers often regard me with suspicion.

I know, you are right. How can this be?

They view me as the evil nemesis to their creative force, because I negotiate licensing agreements to bring brands from other categories into wireless content.

They proclaim, “Why are we licensing brands, when we should be coming up with our own original intellectual properties?”

They quote examples like Lara Croft, Sonic The Hedgehog and Final Fantasy. Each began as a videogame and was then licensed in the opposite direction: spawning movies and TV shows and duvet covers and toys and birthday cakes and so on.

Absolutely correct. Any healthy industry needs a mixture of self-created products and brands, alongside licensed brands.

Incidentally, if you think that you have launched a property in mobile, with the potential consumer following to support extension by licensing, please let me know.

I can introduce you to those companies that make all kinds of products (including cakes and toys), who might pay you royalties.

An analysis of the console games charts for 2004 reveals an approximate split of 50% games made under license (for example, FIFA and Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding) and 50% original brands (for example, Driver and Grand Theft Auto).

Wireless content, on the other hand, is dominated by licensed brands. A recent Vodafone top 10 games chart contained 5 licensed and 5 generic games - and none that could be described as original IP.

Why is that? Will it change?

It is mainly because, as an industry in this early phase, we need to grab the attention of consumers and help them to understand what type of entertainment they can expect.

It will change as the ‘tipping point’ of end-user involvement is reached. Also, as the value of the industry grows and becomes profitable for the companies involved.

Developers, operators and content providers will then have more enthusiasm for launching new content and original brands.

The successful ones will really appreciate and utilise the distinctive strengths of the mobile platform.

VALUE OF BRANDS

Mobile is the last media channel and it has adopted famous brands far more quickly than any preceding channel.

Television, radio, cinema and the internet all have two characteristics that limit them compared to mobile phones: none of them is personal to the user and none of them is mainly intended for inter-personal communication.

Each person’s mobile phone is theirs alone, therefore we all want to use ours to personalise and interact in our own way.

One way to exhibit our personal preferences is through our favourite brands. Favourite football team, music, movie, fashion, videogame, comic, TV show, consumer product, celebrity and book.

Looking at games, as just one type of wireless content, reveals these brands and many others being brought to mobile phones: FIFA, Tiger Woods, The Weakest Link, Fox Sports, Lord Of the Rings, Star Wars, 50 Cent, Scooby Doo, Spider-man, Looney Tunes, UPA Pool, Tomb Raider, Winnie The Pooh, Space Invaders and Harry Potter.

Licensing is the principal method by which famous brands travel from their original category into other categories.

Licensing is defined as the granting of rights, in return for remuneration, for intellectual property owned by one party to another party, in order to gain audience awareness, effect market positioning and add value to commercial products and services through association.

In 2003, the worldwide licensing industry was worth approximately $170 billion at consumer prices.

The largest categories for licensed goods were clothing (34%) and toys (11%). Mobile handsets and wireless content are included within the broad categories of Electronics and Software, together accounting for 8% of the retail value at $15 billion. (Sources: License! and LIMA.)

How is this achieved? Which companies take part in the value chain? How do they benefit? How are deals structured? How can your company keep ahead of the competition?

Wirelessville

The mobile content industry veteran stood with the new recruit on top of the hill, overlooking the sprawling town of Wirelessville.

He explained “I am a veteran of this industry and moved to this town to work on mobile content in the early days – way back in 1999!

“Look at all the different sizes and types of buildings and streets, representing the different types of companies toiling away here.

“In ’99, most of this was fields. The buildings were modest dwellings and there were none of the office blocks being built by cranes that you see today.

“The inhabitants were pioneers and entrepreneurs. Techno geeks, some would cruelly call them. But they all had a vision of the day when you would be able to play games, change your ringtone, access the internet, get your email, watch video clips, gamble and do all those other things on your mobile phone.

“Steam rose from the dwellings in those days, as they sought the answers to questions like ‘What is the business model?’, ‘Can we make money out of WAP before Java and 3G?’ and, most relevant to my job, ‘Can we license some famous brands to give our stuff instant popularity?’

“The largest building in those days was the conference centre. Look, the conference organisers made so much money, out of hosting debates about those questions, that today they are having the roof clad in gold!

“At the other extreme, many were casualties of those early struggles. For example, behold the ruins of Riot E House with the words ‘Curse Marvel!’ scrawled in fading red paint on the wall. Some say they paid over $1 million for an X Men WAP game.

“Some houses look a bit crowded, don’t they? That’s where two companies have had to move in together, to survive the winter of modest revenues and hang on for the summer of large profits!

“Now, behold those tall buildings at the top of that grand parade. Those are the hallowed towers of the Network Operators.

“See the long queue of Content Providers along the grand parade? At the head of that queue are the early pioneers who found the right business model, made the right content and signed the right licences. They have names like Jamdat and Digital Bridges.

“I helped to lever open the doors of those tall buildings for Digital Bridges by negotiating their first deal with that god of the parallel videogames universe, Electronic Arts. The power of effective licensing was seen, as the Operators threw open all of their doors and sat seductively on their desks begging for some FIFA and Tiger Woods!

“At the back of the queue are the New Arrivals. They saw the bandwagon rolling through the neighbouring towns and jumped on it a bit too late. Many of them are what I call Dotcom Refugees. Now, they face a long wait in line to be allowed access to the Operators.

“They make my job trickier by tabling ridiculous bids for licences, in desperate attempts to gain distribution. I have to persuade Brand Owners that my clients will pay them more in the long term, because they already supply the Operators.

“See the posh suburban houses on the outskirts of the town? That’s were the Brand Owners live. They have old money, made from TV shows, movies, sports, music, comics, books and associated merchandise. Now, they are making increasing amounts of cash from using their brands for mobile content.

“Some have chosen to set up a direct line to the Operators and a huge internal team to manage it all. Others prefer the lower risk option of licensing their brands to the Content Providers on the grand parade.

“All along the grand parade are various shops, which trade with the content providers. They offer goods and services like aggregation, development, testing, localisation, recruitment, advertising, PR and web portals.

“In this town, pawnbrokers have been renamed Venture Capitalists!

“My shop is there, see, it’s called AT. It introduces Content Providers and Brand Owners to each other, for happy long-term licensing relationships.

“Let’s go and get a latte or a beer each. Next time, I will start to explain to you how licensing works.”