UK youth offered free MMS for 1 day

Rating: The BBC to benefit from major mobile user-generated content

Not content with getting its news footage for free from an unsuspecting British populace, the UK’s publicly funded media company – the BBC – has decided to sucker more kids into using their mobile phones to send in pictures/videos via MMS.

No fewer than seven leading UK-based mobile operators – 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Tesco Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Media – have fallen for this ploy which will allow the nation’s youth to send contributions via MMS to the BBC’s Radio One web site for free.

Luckily this generosity will only last for 24 hours – between midnight Thursday 10th December and midnight Friday 11th December 2009. So anyone sending an MMS to the shortcode 81199at the time won’t have to pay for it.

This move forms part of an ‘Access All Areas’ week which is designed to boost the appeal of BBC Radio One’s web site by mixing contributions from the general public with items created by the station’s DJs.

The BBC’s Picture Messaging Day has come about with the help of the UK’s Mobile Data Association (MDA) which will enjoy unprecedented publicity for its webiste www.getsettings.org which helps consumers set up their mobile phones for MMS when the correct settings are absent.

“Our getsettings website aims to address issues around older handsets in circulation, ” said Martin Ballard, the MDA’s operations director. “The emergence of increasingly sophisticated and affordable devices means users can begin to capitalise on the rich mobile messaging facilities which are now available.”

Anything which creates awareness of the possibilities offered by MMS is, of course, highly laudable. Hopefully the BBC won’t be the only venture to benefit from free user-generated content in future.