Amp'd's Future Looks To Be As A Content Provider, Not An MVNO

The biggest lesson from the failure of Mobile ESPN was that exclusively selling your content through your own MVNO isn't always such a great idea. Content providers that go down this road are basically shutting themselves off from the vast majority of the market: while there may be plenty of people interested in their content, the number of those actually willing to switch mobile operators -- and pay a premium price for it -- is quite low. It's interesting then, to see another MVNO, Amp'd, start to take the reverse track. Its MVNO operation in the US appears to be struggling, but it's begun licensing its content platform to foreign carriers. Following a deal in August with Canada's Telus, Amp'd has now struck a deal with Japanese mobile operator KDDI that will make Amp'd content available to its 20 million or so subscribers. So is the future of Amp'd as a content aggregator and provider, rather than a standalone MVNO? Again, this makes a lot of sense. Despite the protestations of the company's CEO that the MVNO model isn't broken, Amp'd certainly doesn't have many subscribers to show for its $250 million in investment (and that's even if the most recent user figures can be believed). It's built on the belief that its target demographic of young cool kids need or want a mobile operator that focuses on them, but this really isn't the case, particularly when it comes at a higher price than the standard mass-market operators. Their possible interest in certain types of content really isn't a strong enough draw, and like ESPN, Amp'd is probably better off making deals that will let it sell its content to whoever wants to pay for it, regardless of what operator they use.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Jamie, 31 Oct 2006 @ 8:15am

    ampd

    Good analysis, but an interesting finding if you look at their website---they've got a better low-usage postpaid plan than any of the actual carriers (and Verizon itself)...$30 for 500 minutes, $29 phone with only an 18 month (not a 24 month) contract.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Carlo, 31 Oct 2006 @ 8:15am

    Yeah, that coupled with their cheaper-than-everybody family plans really sort of undermines their claim that they're a content-based MVNO. Just like pretty much every other operator that's tried to differentiate by using content and services, they've had to use deeply discounted voice services to try and lure in users. That model isn't likely sustainable when you're an MVNO.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.