MEF sets guidelines for ‘participation-television’

The Mobile Entertainment Forum launched a participation-television (P-TV) code of practice that the organization hopes will enable the market to sustain its growth in the United States and avoid the issues that have hampered the industry abroad.
“If you can’t have self regulation then you’ve got to have co-regulation,” Suhail Bhat, MEF’s policy and initiatives director, said.
Bhat added that MEF believes it’s better for the industry to regulate itself rather than having governments step in.
“There are no real problems in the United States at this point,” he said, adding that the MEF, which comprises most of the major players in mobile entertainment, hopes to keep things that way.
In more mature markets abroad, basic, procedural errors have angered consumers and slowed the market.
MEF’s code requires pricing information be clearly displayed on the program and easy mechanisms for refunds, and reflects existing U.S. legislation and the Federal Communication Commission’s “Truth-in-Billing” principles.
MEF has been working with various companies in the P-TV industry since July 2007, Bhat said.
“One of the things for me is that it is often difficult to get people around the table that are competitors,” Bhat said. “This is one of the ones where it’s actually easy to get everyone together. . I haven’t found any resistance at all.”
MEF plans to continue updating the code to stay ahead of the industry’s innovations.
“In order for the code to be valid it has to be used in a sort of everyday sense,” Bhat said.
Edward Boddington, founder of Telescope Inc., which manages the interactive voting components of “American Idol” among other hit shows, said he was pleased with the final outcome.
“The MEF code addresses the need for practical guidance covering all parts of the mobile entertainment ecosystem. Shows continue to attract record numbers of mobile texts and calls, and regulating this huge marketing opportunity efficiently and transparently is vital to its ongoing success,” he said.