ESPN, MediaFLO USA, Verizon Align for New Mobile TV Channel

SAN DIEGO/LOS ANGELES/BASKING RIDGE, July 26: ESPN, MediaFLO USA and Verizon Wireless have teamed up for the delivery of the first mobile TV channel dedicated to action sports, EXPN, on Verizon’s V CAST Mobile TV, complementing X Games coverage.

EXPN will carry exclusive mobile coverage of competitions, behind-the-scenes action and commentary from X Games 13. The new mobile TV channel will be available for the duration of X Games 13. The new dedicated channel will feature live coverage of events provided by ESPN for eight hours each day from August 2 through August 5, everything from practices to qualifying events to event finals, a daily "Best of the X Games" segment that will show viewers all of the extreme highlights, and an ESPN debut of a double box segment during the rally car races that will give fans the opportunity to see the race from each driver's viewpoint as they compete side-by-side. Highlights of previous years' X Games also will be shown on the EXPN from July 22 through August 1, and "Best of the X Games" and X Game 13 replays will air August 6 through August 7.

"X Games fans want to see the action as it happens,” stated John Zehr, the senior VP of digital media production at ESPN. “By teaming with MediaFLO USA to offer this channel through Verizon Wireless, ESPN is reaffirming our commitment to our fans by showing all the extreme action while expanding our multi-platform approach. Through this dedicated channel, X fans will see Travis Pastrana's practice runs or Shaun White grab big air during the skateboarding finals even if they aren't near a big-screen TV."

itsmy.com Hits Half-Million Mobile User Mark

itsmy.com, a mobile 2.0 service that is completely financed by ads (it certainly shows), just drew its 500,000th registered mobile internet user, according to a release from the company.

With 14 months post-launch under its belt and near exclusive mobile viral growth in its respective community, the brand purports to be the leading US market leader in off-deck mobile social networking.

"The growth of itsmy.com has been quickest in the US and UK," Mikko Saarelainen, Chief Strategy Officer, points out. But that may not be saying much, per her mention that "only 6 percent of all cell phone owners have ever used mobile internet and only 2 percent of the entire subscriber base of mobile operators have ever tried to surf in 3G networks."

itsmy.com is owned by Gofresh GmbH, which boasts offices in Munich, New York, London and Madrid.

CEO Antonio Vince Staybl of Gofresh also highlighted a refusal to mix the "traditional" internet with the mobile only community. “We don’t have an online networking site and that’s the secret of our success," she said. "We have to think mobile. To feel mobile. And that does not work from the view of traditional online media.”

Nokia to buy Photo-Sharing Social Networking site Twango

Reuters reports that Nokia, the world's top mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday it would buy U.S.-based photo-sharing social networking site Twango (http://www.twango.com/), but did not disclose the price.

Twango was founded in 2004 but U.S. traffic data from measurement firms Hitwise and Quantcast and global data from Alexa.com show it has found little audience so far compared to sites like YouTube, PhotoBucket or Flickr.

Nokia has increased its acquisitions under Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who took over in June 2006. He has said the firm is looking to acquire more companies to strengthen its multimedia and corporate offering.

"The Twango acquisition is a concrete step towards our Internet services vision of providing seamless access to information, entertainment, and social networks," Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokia's multimedia unit said in a statement.

"We have the most complete suite of connected multimedia experiences including music, navigation, games, and - with the Twango acquisition - photos, videos, and a variety of document types," he said.

Analysts see Internet social networks as a key element in the future of the media business. News Corp.'s 2005 acquisition of MySpace has boosted the value of Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate as a whole.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco and Sakari Suoninen in Helsinki)

A&E Television Networks, MobiTV Launch Mobile Video Channels

NEW YORK, July 23: A&E Television Networks (AETN) has reached a deal to launch two made-for-mobile channels, A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile, in the U.S. on mobile content provider MobiTV.

Available on the mobile channels will be acclaimed series such as Dogfights and Modern Marvels from The History Channel, and Dog the Bounty Hunter and Criss Angel Mindfreak from A&E Network.

The creation and distribution of A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile to wireless video subscribers in the U.S. is part of AETN's overall digital strategy to deliver its programs and services to viewers on multiple platforms. This announcement marks the second agreement between AETN and MobiTV for wireless distribution. In April 2006, the two companies partnered to deliver The History Channel en espanol as part of the line-up on MobiTV en Espanol, the first live Spanish-language mobile television service offered in the U.S. In addition, AETN is offering broadband channels via MobiTV Broadband Television for A&E, The History Channel, The Biography Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, Military History Channel and History International. Internationally, A&E and The History Channel Latin America offer mobile services with MobiTV throughout the Latin American region.

"The mobile platform is an increasingly important interactive screen that provides our consumers with access to our branded programming wherever and whenever they want it, and we are pleased to partner with MobiTV to offer A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile to viewers," said Paul Jelinek, the senior VP of digital media at AETN. "These mobile channels enable us to offer a new service to our existing audience, and through cross promotion, to bring new viewers back to our linear channels."

Ericsson and Texas Instruments to co-develop innovative 3G solutions for handset manufacturers

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), the world's leading telecom supplier, and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE:TXN), the global leader in silicon solutions for wireless communications, today announce that the companies will form a strategic technology engagement to develop custom solutions for new Open OS enabled 3G devices.

Solutions from the technology created by the two companies will combine small and power efficient 3G modems from Ericsson Mobile Platforms with high-performance OMAP(TM) applications processors from TI. Solutions from the joint engagement will include OMAP, custom basebands and connectivity technologies and will be capable of supporting the major Open OS, which offer easy access to a rich array of applications and services. The result of this joint effort will enable all device manufacturers to offer advanced Open OS handsets for both the high-end and the rapidly growing mid-range market.

The collaboration between Ericsson and TI will enable handset manufacturers to deliver the exciting mobile entertainment and multimedia experiences that consumers around the world are increasingly demanding. Ericsson's access technology leadership, current HSPA-enabled platforms, and future HSPA evolution and LTE technologies, combined with the cutting-edge multimedia performance enabled by TI's OMAP 2, OMAP 3 and future generations of OMAP processors, will continue to push the performance boundaries of mobile devices and mobile entertainment features.

By leveraging TI's OMAP platform with Open OS support for Windows® Mobile, Symbian S60, Symbian UIQ and Linux®, these solutions will provide OEMs and operators with a robust and flexible architecture for applications and services deployment, enabling easier delivery and management of services and content. This enables handset manufacturers and mobile operators to differentiate their products through rich, easy-to-use and customizable user interfaces, and through a robust and flexible application architecture.

The result of the joint effort will bring to market an evolving portfolio of wireless technology platforms with Open OS support to reduce complexity, investment and time-to-market for device manufacturers. The solutions, which seamlessly integrate the modem and applications processor, will be presented in one pre-verified and tested platform reference design. This approach will drastically reduce development and verification efforts previously undertaken by device manufacturers, enabling customers to rapidly bring highly advanced yet competitively priced products to market.

The joint solutions will also benefit from the Ericsson Mobile Platforms IOT program, one of the industry's most extensive interoperability testing processes, guaranteeing full compliance with operator requirements, speeding up time to market and securing an easy roll-out of products.

Greg Delagi, senior vice president of TI's Wireless Terminals Business Unit, says: "It's a tribute to the long-standing collaborative relationship between EMP and TI that we can tap into and combine each company's unique wireless expertise in order to deliver the most timely, targeted solutions to the market. TI's broad, proven product portfolio and advanced manufacturing capabilities have continued to adjust to the demanding requirements of EMP's customer base. We believe that today's announcement will build on what TI can bring to EMP and what both companies together can bring to this vital, dynamic industry."

Robert Puskaric, head of Ericsson's mobile platforms' unit, says: "Ericsson is clear in its commitment to design and offer a portfolio of flexible, innovative mobile platforms that address the requirements of the rapidly evolving mobile device market. We are pleased to work closely with TI to combine the finest of each company's core wireless know-how - EMP's access technology and platform size leadership with TI's innovative OMAP application processors in order to provide the most capable Open OS platforms on the market today."

Handsets based on these solutions are expected to be available on the market in the second half of 2008.

Nokia Cuts Mobile GPS Orientation Time by Over Half

Adding promise to the future of location-based online services, Nokia has launched a service that cuts the time a GPS-based mobile phone takes to pinpoint its geographical position.

ZDNet reports that the service, available for owners of its N95 smartphone, will cut start-up time from three minutes to one minute in most countries. GPS' current location orientation speed has dampened interest mobile-based navigation.

Most assisted-GPS technologies utilize mobile carrier cell sites to locate units faster, but Nokia's just-launched service bypasses operator networks entirely. Instead, data from a SIM card and a new softwarehelps the phone catch satellite signals.

The GPS chips in car navigation systems use satellites to determine a person's position.

Berg Insight forecasts that annual shipments of handset-based personal navigation devices in the US and Europe will reach 12 million units in 2009, up from 1 million in 2005.

Nokia's N95 currently retails for $965, or 700 euro, making it among the less accessible smartphones on the mobile market. In time, however, Nokia will stock all its GPS-ready devices with the new service.

Mobile AdSense a Reality, Google Invites Testers

Google has extended invitations to mobile website publishers to test the display of AdSense ads on those sites, reports PC World.

The search/advertising giant is conducting a limited test of the system as it gathers feedback for use in developing a final product. Getting AdSense into the mobile world would be a major coup for Google, as more and more users fire up their wireless devices for web surfing purposes.

In order to participate, sites must be written in one of three mobile-friendly markup languages. The restrictions are due to Google's crawlers needing to be able to read the page in order to place appropriate ads.

Streaming Media Advertising to reach $1.4 Billion This Year

Streaming media (audio and video) advertising is forecast to reach $1.37 billion in 2007, up 38 percent over 2006 revenue, according to "Streaming Media Advertising 2003 - 2008: Market Spend by Avail, Brand and Content Category," by AccuStream iMedia Research, MarketingCharts reports.

Among AccuStream's top-line report findings and analysis:

* Some 2.1-2.7 billion streams/progressive download views per month inside professional, ad-supported or free content areas are sold (excluding user-generated video) against inventory averaging 1.4-1.6 billion pre roll avails..
* The market size for both streaming audio and video advertising is estimated at $990.3 million in 2006, up 128 percent over $433 million billed in 2005 (see data graphic below)
* The market is forecast to grow by 40 percent in 2007 to $1.38 billion
* Internet radio gross ad billings are forecast to reach $66.4 million in 2007, up by 60 percent over 2006
* Pre roll is forecast to make up 26.7 percent of gross video ad spend in 2007 (not including pre roll or interstitial units sold against long form content), and 28.5 percent in 2008
* By contrast, embedded units make up an estimated 58.8 percent of gross billings in 2007, and forecast at 55.9 percent in 2008
* Gross pre-roll ad billings are estimated at approximately $36 - $43 million per month in 2007.

Talk of Cheaper iPhone Sets Apple Stock on Cloud 9

Shortly after speculation from a JP Morgan analyst that Apple would go Nano with the iPhone, shares of Apple leaped 1.5 percent to $134.50 from its 52-week high of $133.34 from Friday, according to The Globe and Mail.

Apple's stock has already jumped 40 percent in the months between announcement of the iPhone and its June 29 release. Recently, a patent filing disclosed by the US Patent and Trademark Office lent fuel to rampant rumors that Apple would follow the hype-ridden, but costly, item with a smaller and less expensive "iPhone Nano."

The patent application was filed in November and describes a multifunctional, iPhone-like handheld device.

Other analysts at JP Morgan told investors last Tuesday that Nano iPhone speculation could not be confirmed.

Mobile Video Users are Diverse, Growing

While overall mobile video is growing quickly, it's growing across a variety of platforms, reports MediaPost.

The findings come from a study by Knowledge Networks/SRI. Overall mobile video consumption by people using laptop computers is up 40 percent. Similar percentages of people watch videos on their iPods as those who watch on their cellphones: eight and six percent, respectively.

But the length of the videos varies greatly. iPod watchers view more long-form video, with 53 percent of sessions lasting over 30 minutes. The average length of time for cellphone viewers was less than five minutes. Full-length movie-watching on iPods jumped to 54 percent this year, up from just one percent last year.

The report's authors believe the difference may be caused, at least in part, by where the video is typically retrieved. iPods must be synced with a computer, so viewing behavior more closely resembles that done on the PC. Cell phone video, on the other hand, is downloaded or streamed straight to the device.

There's also the difference in the device's overall intent and purpose that likely plays a role in determining usage.

For advertisers, the study offers a mixed bag. Four out of five mobile video users are said to be open to watching ads in exchange for free content. But only 30 percent said the ads they've viewed are relevant to them personally.

The report's authors say advertisers need to do a better job of taking advantage of the micro-targeting capabilities mobile video offers in order to increase that percentage.

Nintendo Testing Fan Network for MLB Games

Nintendo wants to bring interactive entertainment to baseball games through its DS Lite, according to The Associated Press.

The gaming company is testing what it's calling the Nintendo Fan Network at the home ballpark of the Seattle Mariners. By installing a bit of software on a DS Lite, fans can access a live TV feed of the game, along with features like trivia, player stats and more. The DS Lite has wireless connectivity, which is what allows for such usage. While in the early testing stages, Nintendo is selling $5 access for a single game. Fans can also purchase access to 10 games for $30. Kiosks in the ballpark allow attendees to grab the software.

The Mariners are promoting the network with in-ballpark ads, but not very many of them.