Surveying the Mobile Video Landscape

Using MediaFLO and MobiTV to create premium Olympics video channels meant that the number of potential handsets was limited, so NBC also published a public WAP site (http://mobile.nbcolympics.com) for those users that had video-enabled mobile devices along with a data plan. While not actively promoted, NBC reported more than 1 million mobile-video-content views in just the first 2 days of the Olympics.

The path to the Olympics was also captured and broadcast in real time. In April, a Sacramento Bee reporter captured on-the-scene clashes between supporters of China and Tibet during the Olympic torch relay’s San Francisco routing, streaming the clips to the web in real time.

With a mobile phone mounted on his DV camera, reporter Manny Cristomo used Qik to relay broadcasts in real time to the Qik website. The Bee’s editorial staff was then able to add the content to the newspaper’s site and its own customized player. Later, after Cristomo returned to the office, the live lower-quality content was replaced with higher-quality versions from the DV camera footage.

"Our goal is to try and create an immediacy for our online video," said The Bee’s director of multimedia, Mark Morris, adding that this way of posting editorial content immediately was something new, as The Bee had only been trying out the Qik technology for 2 weeks prior to the San Francisco Olympic torch relay.

Mobile marketing, streaming, and YouTube use were also a factor in the U.S. presidential election race, with a skew toward Democratic candidate and now president-elect Barack Obama. Live mobile streams of the conventions were widely watched, marking the first political events to be widely broadcast via mobile.

"While I’m not sure either party is fundamentally more equipped to leverage mobile’s capabilities," said Nielsen’s director of mobile research, Nic Covey, "the Democrats have an edge in that their base is more inclined to the medium today, when you consider youth and the urban skew."

Summary
In conclusion, the move toward mobile video as a more significant percentage of overall streaming and progressive-download video consumption continues, with the skew toward live events and, potentially, the further consumption or snacking of high-quality on-demand content. 2009 holds more potential as LTE makes its appearance in the U.S. and as resolution, data speed, and handset functionality continue to increase.

At some point, we’ll be faced with another choice, similar to the smartphone/PDA decision we had to make in the early 2000s, in which we’ll have to determine whether our phones are mobile network devices or just plain talkies. In that instance, we may find that we’re carrying two devices again: one for talking and one for everything else. Regardless of when that inflection point comes, within the coming year, we are certain to see a significant shift to more content being streamed for consumption on mobile phones.

Tim Siglin (writer [at] braintrustdigital.com) writes and consults on digital media business models and "go to market" strategies. He is chairman of Braintrust Digital, a digital media production company, and co-founder of consulting firm Transitions, Inc.