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Content Delivery >> Mobile Rah!
12/29/2005
The idea behind these partnerships is simple: Give students what they want, when they want it, in the medium that they desire most. While CSTV d'esn’t run the MobiTV or V-Cast services, the company works with these entities to deliver its ordinary television and Internet broadcasts in the form of mobile content. According to CSTV founder and CEO Brian Bedol, more than 600,000 CSTV subscribers signed up for the services in their first six months. Bedol says he expects that number to grow exponentially during the annual NCAA Tournament in March, a time of year when even professional sports fans turn their gaze on the college game.
“The passion of college sports fans and the availability of the technology are a perfect fit,” he says. “Students are completely mobile, traveling back and forth to school and back to their home towns, and as alumni they continue that practice. No matter where in the world they may be, they want to keep in touch with their alma mater. Our services enable that kind of connectedness.”
The Rest of the Pack
Summus, Smartphones Technologies, and CSTV are undoubtedly leaders in the higher education mobile content space, but they are not alone. A variety of organizations have joined the ranks in recent months, as well, offering a mix of ring tones, still images, and video clips for downloading at will. Atop this second tier of content aggregators is 2Thumbz Entertainment, an NC-based outfit that collaborated with Summus on Fighttones.com.
Under the auspices of CEO Mark Baric, 2Thumbz also sells its content through Verizon and Cingular. In all, the mid-sized content aggregator represents more than 250 schools.
Baric is a bit of a philosopher when it comes to content delivery, and he considers his company part of the wireless entertainment industry. When pressed, Baric insists that downloadable ring tones and logos are no different from downloadable games or other forms of content that cell phone users purchase to outfit phones exactly the way they want. For Baric, the burgeoning mobile content market works because it trades on something that just about every student or alumni possesses: pride. In Baric’s mind, mobile content delivery enables this pride, empowers it, and gives it a voice that each and every user can express in the way he sees fit.
“Every phone has to ring to one tune or another; every phone needs some sort of backdrop in its screen.” Baric says. “If you’re proud of your school, why shouldn’t that ring be the school’s fight song, or the school’s logo?”
On a smaller scale, Cellus, a Colorado aggregator recently acquired by Airborne Entertainment, offers ring tones and images via many of the biggest carriers. The company claims to serve nearly 300 colleges, but won’t reveal which ones. The no-frills
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