SingTel offers free mobile TV episodes to users
Singapore Telecommunications has launched shortform digital series Sorority Forever for free for its iPhone and 3G mobile customers.
The episodes of the Warner Brothers’ show are between 2-3 minutes long, and the entire series is now available on-portal for SingTel customers. There are no data charges or any additional fees for watching it.
From the release:
“With the growing number 3G phone users and customers who enjoy digital content, we are pleased to bring our customers good quality made-for-mobile content like ‘Sorority Forever’. We are also offering the show free to our over 1.07 million 3G customers with no data charges or sign-up fees, making it possible for them to enjoy interesting and entertaining mobile TV content their phones,” said Mr Terence Lai, SingTel’s Director of Mobile Advertising, Content & Portal Product.
What we think?
Ah… free data charges. The main reason I would shy away from watching any TV content on my mobile is because that kind of data download is really going to make an impression on my bill. So making a TV show (even one like Sorority Forever… this isn’t a TV review blog, but that is one awful show) available for free is far more likely to draw me in.
But is worth it for SingTel? A lot of people are really pushing mobile TV content now, but is one crappy TV show going to attract enough new customers to justify the price of purchase? Or are they really desperate to keep people on-portal?
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- Vodafone and Babelgum launch free mobile video service
- SingTel launches mio TV on Mobile service with Nokia Siemens Networks solution
- SingTel taps Comverse to provide targeted ads based on user info
It appears that the potential value for SingTel lies in the “Advertising” portion of Mr. Li’s title. It will be interesting to see how viewership grows and in turn how advertising can be leveraged. Personally, I’d like to see operators begin to succeed on the advertising/sponsored front.
Bill Ganon
Absolutely. I’m inclined to believe that using free content and advertising to drive mobile video will be the way forward, but I’m not entirely convinced yet. I’m looking forward to seeing how this experiment turns out for SingTel.