Hollywood is no stranger to change. It continues to ride a wave of new mediums, distribution channels and formats. Major television studios and networks have learned to embrace new technologies while still capitalizing on a business plan that has made an empire out of creative, artistic expression.
Now it must reckon with the mobile screen.
The big media conglomerates may be members, even co-founders, of the Hollywood establishment, but there is nothing communal about their varied strategies and approaches to mobile TV. While some networks have invested tremendous amounts in exclusive mobile content, others have decided to further exploit their hugely successful programs by repackaging them for the mobile environment.
“NBC Universal has started with what we think are signature brands,” said Salil Dalvi, VP of wireless at NBC Universal. “We will package brands appropriately for the medium. It all starts with the consumer.”
NBC’s programming is what keeps viewers coming back week after week, Dalvi said. “Why change Jay Leno’s monologue for the mobile?” he asked. “In that context, why would we want to change that for the Web, mobile or television? We want to offer consumers what they want.”
While much of NBC’s content is customized for mobile, it isn’t necessarily original video. The network understands that mobile is different, more interactive and that means “re-visioning what we’re doing for the phone,” he said.
“Bravo is a great example of where they said, ‘Got it. We understand it,’ ” Dalvi said. “They’re leading us in many cases,” by cross-promoting and integrating mobile-exclusive cast information, blogs, trivia and polls with their TV programming. “What does a Project Runway fan want? They want to be able to have a voice in who gets kicked off,” he said.
“It’s not just about the content that lives on the phone, but what the consumer wants. It deepens that loyalty to our franchises,” he said. “I’m not minimizing the value of mobile video,” Dalvi continued. “A great interview on the Today Show is a great interview on mobile and broadband, so we do that.”
Trademarking the mobisode
Fox Mobile Entertainment takes a somewhat different approach; to the point that it even trademarked the term “mobisode” in 2004 to promote and define its continued foray into mobile TV. What is a mobisode? “A short series of episodes created exclusively for mobile and produced for mobile,” explained Mitch Feinman, senior VP of Fox Mobile Entertainment.
Two of Fox’s most popular shows, Prison Break and 24, have both delved heavily into mobisode production. The mobile division at Fox, which is physically located alongside the network’s television group, is directly involved in planning and hiring new actors for the spin-off mobisodes that expand on storylines already written into the regular show. They generally run about three minutes and reach one to two dozen episodes per season. 24: Conspiracy, a spinoff of 24, was even nominated for a daytime Emmy in 2006 in the new category “original entertainment programming created specifically for non-traditional viewing platforms” after its first mini-series ran in 2005.
“From the top, people are always thinking about digital media and extensions. I think it is a mandate from the top of this organization that everybody should be thinking about it,” Feinman said. “I think more and more, the medium is going to demand content created with regards to what the viewing experience is. The way the lighting is done, using a lot of close-ups, filtering out the ambient noise.”
Three-screen power
If there is a middle ground to be staked out in the wireless TV space, CBS seems closest to it. “Our overall approach is that we believe the true power lies in the combination of three screens-the television, the computer and the cellphone,” said Cyriac Roeding, VP of wireless at CBS Interactive.
Roeding clearly thinks about the power of mobile phones on more than a cursory level. “There’s no other medium that you always carry with you while you’re watching another medium,” he said. “Think about that for a second,” he pressed, adding that surveys have found that more than half of the younger demographic is carrying their cellphone while watching CBS shows. “The cellphone is the most personal medium you have,” Roeding said. “The best way to make this an advantage is to have a personal connection with the consumer. We’re investing a lot into this whole three-screen experience.”
It’s that line of thinking that brought him to CBS in May 2005 to catapult the network into the mobile scene.
The CBS reality hit Big Brother is an example where the network has used mobile TV to further promote its franchise while also giving viewers up-to-the-minute information well before it is broadcast during its regular TV slot. If something of significance to viewers occurs on the set, a special mobile team edits the video and sends mobile subscribers an alert to their cellphone with a link to a fresh clip of the incident. Roeding says CBS was the first and is still the only network to provide this type of service.
“You take the content and turn it into an experience on the cellphone,” Roeding said. “Platforming (what CBS calls this trend) is taking content and turning it into individual experiences on each platform, but highly connected. There has to be true value for the consumer. I don’t need to do something that provides no value.”
The nascent medium of mobile television promises even more acting opportunities in a city filled with thousands anxiously anticipating that big break. These new opportunities also bring up contractual issues between studios and the Screen Actors Guild.
“It’s reared its ugly head and has grown exponentially,” said Tom La Grua, interim deputy national executive director of contracts at SAG. It’s currently being handled on a case-by-case basis, yet with most studios already informing SAG of their plans for mobile television, the membership is pressing hard to have all issues fully vetted and agreed to in the 2008 contract.”
TV broadcaster ABC did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
