Orange has announced an ad-supported content trial on Orange World (it’s portal). The trial will apparently “give 800,000 of Orange’s 15.6 million mobile customers the option to download music to their mobile phone for free or at a discounted rate” – so it’s definitely a trial, but big trees grow from small seeds, right?
The Ad inventory will be managed by ScreenTonic, last for 3 months, and include such notables as Paramount and Ford as advetisers.
It’s interesting that music has been chosen for the Ad trial – apparently customers will have the option of downloading music tracks at full/half/free price, depending on how much “Ad” you can live with. Plans will include a potential rollout to other areas such as games (and I’d assume lots of video!)
So Orange are busy with researching and trialling ads – and with ScreenTonic (now a business unit of Microsoft) involved, they might be beating a path towards some lucrative alternative revenue channels…
[Via: ModiAD News]