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From Superman Home Page:
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/news.php?readmore=4793
She fights with the Justice League, made a splash in Smallville and now, in an effort to reward that show's fans, will star in her own series of animated mobisodes on Sprint. That Supergirl sure gets around. The effort is the second round of mobile shorts from Sprint, the CW network and its sibling Warner Bros. TV Group. The first, based on another Smallville character, Green Arrow, got the highest tune-in of all Sprint's entertainment offerings in winter 2007, the marketer said.
The CW, like many broadcasters, is pushing content onto various platforms to promote its primetime lineup and is finding mobile an increasingly attractive tactic to reach young adults. Going an extra step - creating original stories that parallel Smallville's action - could draw new as well as loyal viewers to the TV show.
"There are passionate fans who respond to content created just for them," said Alison Tarrant, the CW's svp-integrated sales and marketing. "And they respond to the ad partner who sponsors it."
Sprint is this sponsor in this case. The company underwrites the mobisodes as part of an overall deal with the network and advertises during Smallville, which kicks off the second half of its seventh season next week. Sprint also has brand integration that shows off the features and gadgetry of its cell phones, taking it beyond a traditional product placement.
For its entertainment ties, the marketer looks for shows with "a unique group of very highly engaged fans," said Alisa Smith, marketing manager at Sprint, Overland Park, Kansas. "Then we get ingrained with them over time."
Sprint wouldn't release specific figures on how many people watched last season's Smallville Legends shorts or subscribe to entertainment content, which ranges from NFL and Nascar highlights to interviews from Oprah's Big Give and episodes of Hannah Montana. But they, and their competitors, clearly believe it is the future.
Recent estimates are that as many as 10% of cell phone users are watching video. That translates to about 35 million people in the U.S. Of the few million consumers who now carry iPhones, a disproportionate number, 30.9%, are watching mobile TV or video, per M:Metrics, Seattle.
Networks are responding. Some release entire episodes, including behind-the-scenes segments, interviews and making-of specials, while others create fresh content. Fox, an early adopter, has developed original mobisodes around its successful 24, Prison Break and The Simple Life, while ABC has done so with, Lost.
Mobile carriers offer TV-related fare, news, sports, celebrity gossip and the like to their customers as extras, sometimes as an all-you-can-eat subscription, akin to cable TV. Unlimited voice, data and multimedia services cost $99 a month on Sprint, for instance.
Such fees could be a stumbling block, said Peter Kim, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. Kim thinks there's a disconnect between the premium subscriber and the young adult fan of mobile entertainment. "People using the data functions of their cell phones are older professionals," Kim said, referring to corporate BlackBerry users. "That could be too pricey for a teen demo." MyWaves, which licenses content and distributes it free on mobile phones, aims at the 18-34 year-old largely male demo with clips from MTV, Comedy Central and other networks. CEO Rajeev Raman said subscription fees above $5 or $10 a month deter young adults. "It's tough to get the MySpace crowd," Raman said. "It's a high bar."
http://www.supermanhomepage.com/news.php?readmore=4793
