March 30, 2005
Mobile phone ratings could resemble TV-style audience share rankings
Last week Australia has launched a pilot for the mobile soap Girl Friday – a Sex and the City-style drama about a girl who finds a stranger's mobile phone and becomes embroiled in the life of the owner.
Girl Friday, which can be viewed on the web, includes one-minute diary episodes designed to be viewed on mobiles. Random Place, a Neighbours-style local mobile soap based on a Dutch version, is also set to be launched later this month.
And now research firm Nielsen//NetRatings is creating a ratings system to measure the number of people who are accessing news, entertainment and other services on their mobile phones.
As phones and networks increase their video capability and mobile penetration increases, the mobile phone ratings could resemble TV-style audience share rankings, showing the highest-rating mobile services at particular times of the day.
Optus, the first carrier to sign up to the system last year, says traffic spikes during the evening commute home and for live score updates during sports matches.
Advertising on mobile phones is still non-existent, but Nielsen//NetRatings expects that ads will eventually be measured in terms of impressions viewed and click-throughs, similar to how internet ads are measured.
Mobile operators, keen to maximise the billable revenue they generate from their content services, are also requesting data on how to present content in order to encourage subscribers to view it, what time of day people view it, the impact of promotions and competitions on mobile traffic, and the best combinations for bundled content subscriptions. (via The Australian)
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