This week at the NAB Show, the Mobile500 Alliance–the broadcast consortium comprised of 50 member companies with the goal of creating a new growth industry around Mobile DTV–detailed the business model and enhanced features for Mobile DTV. They include new interactive advertising and an improved user experience that features social media integration with Twitter and closed captioning. RBR-TVBR spoke with Steve Lanzano, TVB President, from the NAB Show in Las Vegas about the demo and what this brings to the table for advertisers and broadcasters that online streaming just can’t.
The Mobile500 Alliance has created the first end to end solution for live mobile TV that delivers free over the air television to mobile devices and allows broadcasters to quickly monetize their investment. The Alliance’s business model includes interactive advertising, audience measurement, conditional access for premium content, social media integration, closed captioning, live viewing, recording live TV, and VOD.
Listen to Lanzano’s comments, below:
[audio:Steve-Lanzano-041612.mp3|titles=Steve Lanzano, President, TVB]With audience measurement from the ratings services, stations should realize a lift in ratings allowing them to realize a greater ROI on currently broadcast programs. The platform provides advanced advertising capabilities including video pre-roll and dynamic clickable banners. A major US automaker will be the first national advertiser featured during the Mobile500 trials in Seattle and Minneapolis this summer. The interactive campaign will feature the ability to request a test drive along with video galleries, lead generation, dealer locators, social media integration and more.
Accelerated Media is partnering with the Mobile500 Alliance to sell and serve the interactive advertising on Mobile DTV stations across the country. The interstitial ads will be served between channel changes. Member stations will share in national ad revenue and have the opportunity to sell pre-roll advertising prior to local VOD content.
“As more viewers connect their TVs and mobile devices to the Internet, broadcasters have more options to create new revenue-generating opportunities through iTV advertising,” said Accelerated Media President and CTO Doug McGary. “Our partnership with the Mobile500 Alliance marks the importance of creating viewer involvement that leads to deeper engagement and higher levels of brand recall, purchase intent and product sales.”
Additionally, Mobile500 Alliance will support conditional access by allowing broadcasters to encrypt content delivered over the spectrum. Broadcasters have the flexibility to utilize conditional access only when and if needed, and it is transparent to the user. The addition of conditional access will permit possible integration with other mobile services planned for launch in the U.S. Conditional access is necessary for the addition of subscription channels and pay per view VOD.
Colleen Brown, chair of the Mobile500 Alliance board of directors Fisher Communications CEO, notes that providing stations with advertising and audience data to evaluate their investment in Mobile DTV is a big step in the overall development of this new broadcast technology.
Adds Lanzano: “Consumers spend more time with television than any other medium and they overwhelmingly want the ability to watch live programming on their mobile devices. Advertisers are beginning to see Mobile DTV as the next great marketing opportunity.”
The involvement of Rentrak and Nielsen to provide audience measurement data for Mobile DTV is integral to monetizing the platform. “We’re thrilled to provide our census-based approach to measuring both on-demand and linear television to the Mobile500 Alliance trial,” said Cathy Hetzel, corporate president at Rentrak. “Mobile500 members will be able to quickly monetize viewing of local programming via the mobile platform and many of them already subscribe to Rentrak’s StationView Essentials service which enhances their ability to provide cumulative ratings to advertisers.”
The app has also incorporated Twitter into the viewing experience allowing consumers to read and send tweets while watching mobile DTV. For viewers who are hearing impaired or are in a location where they cannot have the sound on, Mobile DTV offers closed captioning that can be easily engaged with one click.
The Alliance currently has 50 member broadcasting companies comprising 94% of American households–including four public broadcasters, which hold licenses to 437 television stations.
