MediaBuyerPlanner: As the entertainment industry attempts to work with mobile carriers to push entertainment content to users, Hollywood and others have complained that the cellular companies ask for too large a cut.
Entertainment companies also vie against each other for visibility on the decks of prepackaged content carried by cell companies like Verizon, Sprint Nextel, Vodafone and others. To avoid those two pitfalls of working directly with mobile carriers, Universal is planning to launch its own website in November that will offer branded mobile content, writes Adweek.
The move allows Universal to keep a greater share of the mobile revenue pie, and to “have an environment we control,” says Jeremy Laws, svp at Universal Mobile Entertainment.
Universal’s operator channel will likely remain the main revenue generator as far as mobile is concerned, however, Laws says. He believes the value of the direct site will mainly be from a marketing perspective.
The site will sell ringtones, wallpaper and games, in addition to containing mobile pages for Universal films. And, unlike content delivered via carrier decks, the look and feel of the content will be dictated solely by Universal.
News Corp.’s Fox Mobile Entertainment launched a similar initiative last year, with the website Mobizzo. That site has been folded into Jamster, part of the conglomerate’s joint venture with Jamba.
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