Why Would You Do An Exclusive Content Deal On Mobile Devices?
from the bad-for-everyone dept
We were just pointing out how fragmented the mobile TV market was -- which is not a good thing in a new medium trying to gain user acceptance. Well, it doesn't help matter when content providers go off and sign exclusive content deals with a single provider. The operators want it because they think this makes their offering more desirable -- but the number of kids who will sign up with Virgin Mobile just because it's the only mobile provider who will let them watch TRL seems fairly small. Most of the kids who really want TRL will have already saved it at home on the DVR or will simply be downloading it online. They're probably a lot more concerned with other features of the phone than whether or not it can watch TRL. MTV probably did the deal because it helped them score Virgin as a sponsor for MTV's award show. In the long run, though, the deal hurts everyone. It gets fewer people interested in any form of mobile video (which is a concept that still is struggling to show any real traction in the marketplace) while simply confusing and annoying more customers.
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