3 partners with Rhythm New Media for free content on Planet 3
Rating: talk is cheap now data is free
3 will offer an ad-supported mobile service to 3 customers from April. This is a sure fire attempt by the mobile operator (wannabe media company) to trump new MVNO entrant Blyk; which also supports an ad-supported business model.
3 has partnered with Rhythm New Media. Together they will enable users to view and download mobile advertising that was previously paid for. This includes gossip, news, comedy, film, music tracks and mobile games.
Apparently Microsoft and Unilever have confirmed their positions as advertising sponsors for the launch in April. Publishing this information now – will no doubt ensure a number of other big brands jump on the mobile bandwagon. Rhythm New Media will be responsible for the sales of mobile advertising and for the advertising inventory.
From the press release:
Graeme Oxby, Marketing Director at 3 UK, said:
“We’re always looking at ways of bringing our customers great new content on the Planet 3 portal – things like our mobile games and music are already very popular and are generating millions of downloads. However, we also know that people want to browse around and watch stuff for free – by introducing advertising supported content we can massively increase the range of video clips available. Ad supported content is going to be an important part of the mobile world going forward.”
Ujjal Kohli, CEO of Rhythm NewMedia, said:
“This launch offers advertisers an amazing new opportunity – the chance to deliver personalised advertising on mobile at an individual level. As well as selecting your target audience on demographic and content data, our ad-serving technology means you can decide what they see and how many times. For example, if you’ve got multiple ad treatments then we can let you control who sees which one, when and in what order.”
What we think
Mobile advertising is the way forward. Vodafone is already doing it and is also partnering with Yahoo! There are two conflicting camps at BKI Media and GoMo News. Bena Roberts is a hater of mobile advertising and feels the market is not ready and “free” will dumb down the already fragile mobile content market. Annie Turner, Editor of The Mobile Advertising and Marketing Analyst thinks that there is a place for mobile advertising and it can work now. But certain criteria need to be in place. So BKI Media are not fans of mobile advertising and what happens now is critical for its success.
Our advice to Blyk is to make sure that it doesn’t miss the May launch date.
Related News:
- Mobix Interactive partners with Rhythm NewMedia
- Rhythm New Media delivers ad-supported mobile video to Vodafone Spain
- Roll up, Roll up – Free mobile video on 3 UK
- Rhythm NewMedia free mobile video service gets one million customers on 3 UK
- Silverback Media Partners with digital music provider Puretracks for music and content promotion
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