March 4, 2005
Soapies the new mobile ring-ins
Australia's first mobile soap opera, is coming soon to a pocket near you as mobile phone carriers, media companies and television production houses vie for a share of the $1 billion mobile data market, reports The Australian.
"Random Place, based on a Friends-style Dutch mobile series called Jong Zuid, will launch on May 2 showcasing well-known actors, pop stars and sporting figures. The telcos are seeking to persuade young people to access dramatic entertainment while they're out and about.
Each episode - known as a mobisode - will comprise six still images of various characters complete with captions that reveal the storyline and may be downloaded on to any mobile network via a text link.
The Random Place launch sends a strong signal that the mobile phone is beginning to be seen as a personalised, broadcast-style medium".
Other mobile soaps:
-- Hollyoaks pushes mobile service with exclusive TV pics - Mersey TV, the maker of UK Channel 4's teen soap ' Hollyoaks', is hoping to cash in on the mobile text alert trend by offering subscribers unseen exerts of the show
-- Cellpop, The First Cell Phone Drama That is not for your Mama! Cellpop follows the lives of the people who make the hit music we listen to. Each day a new episode is delivered straight to your phone.
-- MMS Soap on Spanish Telefónica Móviles - Móviles has launched FanTESStic, an interactive series with real actors created exclusively for MMS
-- -- Launched on the Internet and closed in the late nineties, the Internet's first Soap, «The Spot» is back - on (Sprint) mobile phone.
-- «InYrShoes» - The plot of a UK soap called «InYrShoes» is not decided by scriptwriters, but by viewers sending text messages at the end of each episode, featuring a cliffhanger or dilemma.
-- Jong-Zuid: First picture soap opera for mobile phones The Netherlands came up with the first Picture Soap, Jong-Zuid, starring famous soap opera actors.
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