If “content is king” then why can’t it run a wireless kingdom?

If Mickey Mouse can’t do it, and sports content can’t do, and even hip and edgy youth-oriented media can’t do it, then who can make the content-driven MVNO model work? This morning Disney Mobile users visiting the Web site were greeted by a notice of closure that reminds us of the days of crashing dotcoms. "Disney Mobile has announced that it will cease its wireless operations as of December 31, 2007," sayeth the Magic Kingdom. "It has been our privilege to serve as your wireless service provider and we want to thank you for your support of Disney Mobile."

According to its press release, the wireless service’s Family Center cluster of family monitoring and location services may end up at another carrier. A reimbursement program is being offered.

Bye Mickey. But we have to wonder what this means for the mobile content industry in general. With the end of Disney Mobile, we now have three media-fueled MVNOs (Amp’d and Mobile ESPN) to bite the dust in less than a year, how powerful is media in drawing people to a wireless service? Granted, Disney tried a smarter route by focusing on its unique kid tracking service. But still, MocoNews reports that part of the problem for Disney was simply getting retail distribution. This was an issue for Amp’d as well.

It may be hard to recall now that just a few years ago the media MVNO was all the rage. I was reporting on up to twenty in the wings. The thinking then was that the major carriers just didn’t know how to market to the niches like young and hip and sport fans. The MVNO let companies ride on the Sprint or Verizon networks but create wholly seprate services and plans. Everyone pointed to Virgin Mobile as the classic success story, but apparently no one successfuly repeated it.   

But getting people to switch is tough. Ultimately, the phone is about convenience and reliable one-to-one communication. People don’t like to fuss with that just to get some cool videos on a handset or even sports scores. The lesson here for digital media is that in most cases our product is nice-to-have, not must-have.   

Posted under Michael's Blog

Amp’d Users Get Another Week of Spotty Service

Updating our post of days ago on the imminent demise of MVNO Amp’d. According to the latest iteration of its Q&A, Amp’d Mobile will “potentially” shut down on July 31 instead of the original July 24 date. It may be a long slow crawl to MVNO death, however. Our Amp’d Mobile phone was getting very spotty service, including a lot of dropped links to video and music downloads. Not that Amp’d was very good at this stuff to begin with. We have played with the youth-oriented wireless provider’s content for over a year now and performance and reliability were never its hallmarks.

According to Forbes, Amp’d is holding an auction on July 31, so it is possible another carrier would pick it up from disgruntled partner Verizon. We’re not sure how that would work, since all of the Amp’d service and software is BREW-based to accommodate the Verizon network, and none of the other major North American players runs a BREW platform.

Posted under Michael's Blog

The demise of Amp’d Mobile should give all digital content providers pause about the real value of entertainment on cell phones

If all goes according to plan, high-flying MVNO Amp’d Mobile will be shutting down service to its 200,000 or so subscribers at 12:01 tomorrow morning. For details and background on the debacle see Rafat Ali’s coverage and the Q&A at the Amp’d site. Considering that this is the second big crash and burn of a content-driven MVNO in less than a year (Mobile ESPN) you have to wonder whether some of the underlying assumptions of mobile media are questionable and not just the MVNO model. How important is content to mobile? While people do ring up incremental sales from wallpapers, applications and ringtones, is that enough to sell phones and two-year contracts? Is content a real market mover?

Some will recall many in the indsutry calling the ESPN foray into mobile a “slam-dunk” because it was plugging into such a base of brand loyalists at their passion point. But reality sets in even for rabid sports fans when you have to pony up hundreds of dollars for a 3G phone and commit to $50 or more a month in fees. Amp’d was unabashedly a content-driven model. From the first time I spoke with former CEO Peter Adderton months before the MVNO’s launch, he argued that exclusive mobile media would sell this service. Young people were ready for mobile video and for a phone that entertained at least as effectively as it exchanged messages.  And with a small but growing core of youth, the model was appealing. Consistently, Amp’s executives argued to me that their ARPU (average revenue per user) was almost double industry averages because their users were buying so many  video downloads, graphics and games. At least one made-for-mobile series, “Lil ‘ Bush” actually broke out to prime time, now on Comdey Central.

See Also

• Amp’d Home Page

Posted under Michael's Blog

Walt’s story in the Wall Street Journal (see my blog earlier today) is right across from one about Sprint’s CEO searching for a way out of its woes caused by annual subscribers canceling. Bad service aside (and I can personally vouch for that), Sprint’s most interesting prospects for luring new customers may be in new branded services for cable and IPTV companies.

Time Warner, Cox, Comcast and Advance/Newhouse are  quintupling to 40 metropolitan areas the wireless customers they service through leased space on Sprint’s network, according to BusinessWeek. Each service will have the respective cable company’s moniker on the screen and Sprint’s name on the phone.

Sprint’s already is the most enthusiastic endorser of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), hosting the likes of Virgin, Movida and Boost.

There was an AOL Time Warner, once upon a time. Maybe soon there will be a Time Warner Sprint.

See Also

• BW: Sprint-cable venture expands to business
• WSJ (Subscription Required): Sprint’s CEO Seeks Stronger Connection

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