In the past, CBS has invested heavily in the development of their mobile sports presence. And building upon last year’s successful mobile coverage and corresponding iPhone app for March Madness, CBS is rolling out a host of new developments for the CBS mobile sports platform.

Chief among such noteworthy developments is the addition of 3G/EDGE support, which will bring live streaming video to the “CBS Sports: NCAA March Madness on Demand” iPhone/iPod Touch application.

The app in question debuted last year to much fanfare and was created with the help of mobile video solutions provider MobiTV. In 2009, however, the application’s enjoyment was limited to those capable of securing a WiFi connection.

The 3G support add-on is certainly a welcome addition, although the upgrade comes with a substantial price increase. Last year’s $4.99 has been replaced by 2010’s new price tag of $9.99.

CBS says their NCAA March Madness on Demand will provide the most comprehensive coverage possible, including all tournament games from the opening round to the Final Four. That means basketball fans can stream 63 live games in all right from their mobile device.

Share This

A familiar name in yesterday’s entertainment emerged at today’s biggest mobile event in Barcelona, Spain.

Mobile World Congress provided a stage for T-Mobile to announce a deal with Blockbuster ahead of the new HTC HD2 touchscreen device. T-Mobile will soon roll out a new mobile entertainment suite to complement the release of their HTC HD2. At MWC we were similarly introduced to the debut of “Blockbuster on Demand.” Essentially, the program is one in which video rentals are now made possible for the first time ever via a download app for your mobile device.

As covered late last year on Mobile Marketing Watch, Blockbuster has increasingly turned town the mobile channel to prevent (or at least delay) the extinction of the video store rental industry.

T-Mobile says Blockbuster’s download application on a smartphone allows consumers to buy a movie on one device and watch on another connected device through Blockbuster’s library.

T-Mobile, however, also revealed a partnership with Paramount Pictures to pack the major blockbusters like “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” on HD2’s memory card. The films will be customized for smartphone viewing.

The carrier added that the HD2 will even debut with Barnes & Noble’s eReader application and the much hyped MobiTV application.

Share This

The biggest winner to emerge from Sunday’s Super Bowl may not be the New Orleans Saints after all.

Flo TV is being praised by many today for their advertising dollars “well spent.”

Flo TV broadcast two Super Bowl ads during the game, which proved among the most memorable of the evening.

The ad everyone is talking about, however, is the one dubbed “Moments,” which served up will.i.am delivering an instant classic remix of “My Generation” – a favorite hit from Super Bowl halftime entertainment, The Who.

Prior to the Super Bowl, will.i.am and The Who revealed that all the proceeds from the “My Generation” remix will benefit Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake Response Fund.

FLO TV, indeed, turned many heads at last night’s Super Bowl, and took the power of mobile entertainment to the biggest annual worldwide viewing audience. When taken into consideration how many companies and entertainment outlets tapped into the Super Bowl’s marketing machine through the mobile channel this year, it could very well be noted that the 2010 Super Bowl elevated mobile marketing to a whole new level on the grandest advertising stage of them all.

Share This

The Consumer Electronics Show has the attention of many mobile marketers this week, particular those eager to discover new and more trendy ways to plug, push, and promote products and services in the mobile sphere. One development that has some folks talking is the Tivit, which essentially serves as an external TV tuner for the iPhone, third-gen iPod Touch, BlackBerry devices with Wi-Fi connectivity, and Motorola Android phones.

Advertisers are looking at the new opportunities born of the demographics that could take hold following the Tivit’s goal to take Mobile DTV to the next level by facilitating live television feeds to smart phones without the need for a paid subscription plan.

Free TV is available on the iPhone through a little tuner box that, with the simple extension of the antenna, taps into a downloadable application that transfers a TV signal to your handset even when internet connectivity is limited or altogether unavailable. At present, the Tivit only provides access to about three dozen channels, but that number is likely to change not long after the device officially rolls out, most likely this summer.

With initial reports indicating that Tivit draws a sharp, quality picture on its resident smartphone, $120 gadget could make a splash in the world of mobile entertainment and mobile marketing when the masses finally obtain access to the Tivit after so much hype.

Share This

FLO TV is growing its mobile broadcasting presence by leaps and bounds.

This week it was announced that FLO TV will expand its content agreement with The Walt Disney Company, the outcome of which is ABC Mobile and the Disney Channel coming on board FLO TV programming.

The expansion brings with it a host of new content offerings for FLO TV, which is owned by Qualcomm. From full episodes of Grey’s Anatomy to fresh installments of “Hannah Montana,” the deal with Disney supplements the already content-rich FLO TV.

The emergent popularity of mobile TV has driven competition and fair pricing in the marketplace to an accelerated degree. AT&T, for example, recently scaled back the price of a mobile TV subscription to $9.99 per month. Verizon currently stands $14.99 per month.

According to Matt Murphy of Disney and ESPN Media Networks, “We are dedicated to connecting viewers to the content they want and brands they love on the platforms they choose and are pleased that in addition to having access to high-quality, popular sports programming from ESPN, users of the FLO TV service will now be able to see their favorite shows from ABC and Disney Channel.”

Share This

After months of rumors and speculation, Comcast is officially taking over NBC Universal, effectively giving life to a media gargantuan that could potentially dominate broadcast and digital media like no other force presently in existence.

The $30 billion deal, however, will likely spark a regulatory battle born of the natural concern that too much “power” now lies with one company.

A critical component of the “power” alluded to is the enormous presence that Comcast and NBC will now have in the world of digital entertainment. With both NBC Universal and Comcast stepping up efforts over the last year to accelerate mobile content distribution, officials for Comcast have repeatedly expressed their desire to keep NBC and Universal entertainment reaching the biggest audience possible.

That’s a favorable sign of things to come for both mobile content distribution and the mobile marketing industry.

According to Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post, “The logic of the Comcast-NBC merger is that by having a strong position in both content and distribution, it won’t matter how all this plays out. For both Comcast and NBC, vertical integration is a hedging strategy that will ensure each emerges from the current competitive chaos as a survivor, no matter where on the value chain the profits and power end up.”

Share This

iPhone users may frequently complain about how much they have to pay for the digital content they want, but it seems they’re still willing to pay up for it – much more so than owners of other smartphones, especially when it comes to television, film, and general entertainment content.

According to the annual Olswang Convergence Survey conducted by market research firm YouGov, the 1,013 adults and 536 13-17 year-olds surveyed in the UK exhibited a striking propensity toward a broad range of services on their iPhone, particularly on-demand television.

Most interestingly, iPhone users also demonstrated a greater willingness to use micropayments and premium subscriptions to pay for access to their preferred content.

The survey indicates that movies represent the content consumers show the greatest interest in purchasing. 58% of adults surveyed admitted being willing to pay for online or mobile access to a film freshly released in theaters. 52% expressed willingness to pay for access to a film that won’t be released on DVD for at least two months. And 40% would be agreeable to paying for access to a film already on DVD or pay-per-view.

“Having discovered the habit and simplicity of paying for apps and other services on the iPhone, it would seem that iPhone owners are also more willing to pay for content of many types than the general online population,” says Olswang partner Matthew Phillips. “To maximize their revenue opportunities in the digital environment, companies need to build payment solutions into consumer propositions on other platforms that are as easy to use as that on the iPhone.”

Share This