I read with interest an interview with Endemol MD Peter Cowley, and his views on Mobile TV. For those of you that don’t know, Endemol have some extremely successful TV properties such as Big Brother, and Deal or No Deal – and in parallel have spent a lot of time and effort previously, feeding their content output over Mobile (both via Operators and independently).
Well, now it seems, Endemol are not so focused on Mobile, since they feel the format has really failed to ignite. In fact, the place where they have found things to be more stable is on the ‘fixed line internet’ – that is, where people are accessing the InterWeb via Broadband, on their PCs.
As well as a LOT of video content, Endemol have been involved in turning some of their properties in to Games – but even these have not suceeded in convincing them that the Mobile is an entertainment platform. Cowley’s view of the iPhone in fact is that it has proved that Apps are succesful, rather than pure games – which is a shame given the majority of the Endemol pure content output is video. Apparently Endemol are staying clear of Apps for now, and will re-visit content for Mobiles when a better ad-funded ecosystem exists.
So there you go – one of the top content creatives stating that Mobile isn’t where it’s at as regards content. I think if we remove the iPhone from that statement, I can kinda see where they are coming from… but what say you, the IntoMobile readership?
[Via: C21media.net]