Europe : Cellcast plc announced that its subsidiary, SUMO.tv, the UK's leading video sharing community, has extended its overseas network by signing important new mobile distribution agreements with Mobibase in France and Tapuz Mobile in Israel on the Orange networks in those countries.
Inset is Andrew Wilson, CEO of SUMO.tv, who comments below.
Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with more than 100 million customers on five continents. The mobile distribution agreement with Mobibase in France means that SUMO.tv is now part of the One TV bouquet of Mobile channels on the Orange Gallery. Orange has over 3.5 million high-speed users (3G, 3G+ and EDGE) and the agreement with Mobibase is a significant opportunity for SUMO.tv to grow its community of European users. In Israel, SUMO.tv will be available via the Orange Network portal through an exclusive agreement for mobile distribution with Tapuz Mobile.
Since its establishment in 2001, TAPUZ MOBILE has gained vast experience in development, deployment, production and adaptation of mobile content specific for 3G, GSM, CDMA and TDMA cellular networks. Discussions are progressing on further mobile distribution deals in a number of markets including Australia, Malaysia and South Africa, where SUMO.tv participated in a three-month DVB-H Mobile TV trial in partnership with MTN. SUMO.tv is the world's first media network to seamlessly integrate user-generated content (UGC) into television programming, internet and mobile services, using its proprietary technical services architecture.
Commenting on the agreements, Andrew Wilson, CEO of SUMO.tv, said: ''Mobile is one of the lynchpins of our multiplatform strategy. We want people to be able to consume and share Sumo content anytime, anywhere, and the short-form nature of that content makes it highly suitable for mobile distribution, meeting both consumers' expectations and behaviour. Mobile access enables the SUMO community to submit 'breaking' content anytime, from anywhere. And with mobile as the 'third screen' in today's consumer world, our mobile distribution strategy extends the opportunity for people to participate in our live TV output in real time.' James Brown, Group Creative and Editorial Director of SUMO.tv, added: 'Our content and multiplatform strategy continues to build an international community of users. These new distribution deals include 24/7 mobile TV channels in both France and Israel, with video-on-demand for streamed minisodes of 3 to 5 minutes, and downloadable video 'snacks' of about 90 seconds, available in France.
The business models are operator dependent revenue sharing agreements with the distributors, and based on a monthly fee for unlimited access or on a pay per view basis.' SUMO.tv's mobile content offering is a fast-paced compilation of the most popular, strangest and funniest user-generated videos circulating on the Internet. These viral videos have been carefully selected and edited so that they are not language-dependent, have broad appeal to mass audiences, and are optimised for display on mobile devices. Over the next few months, SUMO.tv will also begin production and distribution of thematic and niche interest mobile channels to appeal different audiences. Video services are becoming one of the key drivers of mobile entertainment revenues.
David Sidebottom, Consultant, of research firm Understanding & Solutions forecasts that between 2006 and 2010 mobile television and VOD revenues will have increased by 550 percent to US$13 billion. Of that, mobile TV revenues are expected to exceed mobile VOD by a margin of nearly four to one, generating revenues of approximately US$10.4 billion and US$2.6 billion respectively. SUMO.tv is accessible online at www.sumo.tv and in the UK distributes its own TV channel, SKY channel 144. Its global Alexa web ranking, at 3,702, now considerably exceeds that of national UK broadcasters ITV (ranked at 6,263) and Five (19,078).