June MoMo – Mobile TV Wrap-up

Well folks for those of you who could make it to last month’s event, we promised you big and we certainly lived up to all expectations, 3 weeks on and we are still recovering.

The room was packed, the food was great, the drinks were free and the discussion was intense!  With over 80 attendees and our most controversial evening yet The Mobile Monday Melbourne – Mobile TV event is going to go down in the Mobile history books.

Our last minute contender for the evening was Scott Taylor – head of Rich Media for Bigpond who represented the carrier’s point of view.  With some very well rounded presentations from our sponsors for the evening being Mcomms and YoMo, both of which are doing some fantastic things in the mobile space we moved onto the reason why everyone was there, mobile TV, where it’s at and where it’s headed.

Opening our panellists was the charismatic Robbee Spadafora who held the floor with the view from the media networks and what they are doing to prepare for Mobile TV.  Robbee gave the most engaging presentation we’ve had and even managed to throw in some audience participation.  Robbee called on “that guy from Telstra” fellow guest speaker Scott Taylor to justify Telstra’s role as a “Mediacoms” company in the current climate of poor quality video and low market adoption.  Bringing the audience to the stage as a human power point presentation, Robbee showcased how the Telco’s have a long way to go if they want to be a real mediacoms company. From the networks perspective the market just isn’t there yet, it is coming but until quality, price and content improve existing TV and online distribution will be the dominate platforms.

Next up was the knowledgeable Scott Taylor from Telstra who was given the right of reply to Robbee, the power point went out the window and the gloves came off! Scott highlighted that although still an early industry mobile TV is a very real and viable media channel with downloads and viewing exceeding expectations especially in the evenings.  Add to this the fact that consumers are actually paying subscription fees for the content and you have a very strong business case for mobile TV.

Andrea Rule head of interactive at Mediacom showed us that the brands and agencies do in fact have a very strong understanding of the mobile channel and that this is an area of high interest.  Ad-Land does in fact understand the need for compelling mobile content and advertising that is formatted for the medium, a traditional TV commercial broadcast for mobile does not make for a good user-experience.  So for those content producers out there take note, brands are looking for compelling mobile content.

Mel Flanagan Producer of Street TV was our final speaker for the evening and did not disappoint. As the first made for mobile TV channel that is entirely advertising supported Mel showed us that packaged and delivered in the right way it is possible to create a compelling brand in the mobile space independent of any direct involvement a carrier may have on the content distribution. What is even more amazing is that Street TV has only been broadcasting for a year and already commands an audience of 40,000 UV’s per month and this number is growing every month,.

As always the Q&A with the audience opened up some heated debate and things carried on till the wee hours of the morning! I particular we would like to thank Robbee from 7 as even though she had an early morning flight back to Sydney she stayed to till the last and insisted that dinner was on 7, so thank you Robbee and thank you 7!

See you all next month for – The future of mobile