Andrew Bud gives his views on a year in mobile

Andrew Bud, Chair of MEF, has been even more busy than usual in the run up to Christmas, with a string of pieces appearing in Mobile Europe where Andrew looks back over the mobile content industry 2008 and ahead to 2009.

In a feature on mobile TV called ‘Mobile TV - A bad news story?’, Andrew speaks on MEF’s views and work:

"We are waiting to see how successful business models based on downloads or streaming of on demand content taken from libraries are, compared to broadcast models… Some people suggest that on demand models for video are reliant upon either the availability of flat rate data plans or of sender-pays data models from the carriers. Otherwise the costs are frightening to consumers… Finally, there is the evolving regulatory environment. Licensing and spectrum availability issues remain unresolved, and there may be further trouble ahead in the shape of the EU Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMS). AVMS may impose some quite strict legislation designed for broadcast on a medium that is completely new. Our concern has been that AVMS legislation does not strangle mobile TV at birth. The MEF has been at the forefront in both explaining that to the industry and interacting with Brussels in trying to moderate its impact on mobile."

Andrew continues by pointing out that he doesn't think the disappointment of 2008 can be blamed on regulators or on squabbles over technology or business models:

"I think that there was no prospect whatsoever of mobile TV being a big success in 2008, so any disappointment is purely related to unrealistic expectations… I always felt that mobile TV was suffering from the classic hype curve." He thinks it will be at least two more years before we begin to see mass adoption of mobile TV across Europe, and hopes the legacy of 2008 will be a little more realism about how long it will take for mobile TV to live up to its potential: "People have come to understand we're at the dawn of a new medium, and there's going to be lots of hard slog ahead for companies that want to earn money out of it." We'll have to wait and see whether 2009 brings a bit more good news.”

Andrew also gives his thoughts on mobile advertising in an article titled ‘What was driving mobile ad growth in 2008?’:

“The year also saw solid progress on the Ad-funded Mobile Entertainment (AFME) reports being produced by the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), with support from Alcatel and Amobee. These reports are intended to help the mobile entertainment and advertising industries work together more effectively, and form part of ongoing work by the MEF that aims to discover how significant mobile advertising is going to be in future.’ It also quotes Andrew stating: "The mobile entertainment industry is still probably the only industry that sells significant amounts of content via the mobile phone. Until other industries become active in actually selling things over the phone the opportunity for pay per click [advertising] buyers to come into the market is strictly limited.”

You can find both of these articles and other features on ‘A year in mobile’ on the Mobile Entertainment website. These articles are a great end to the year and highlight the work that MEF has done for its members over the year and how they are looking to continue on this year’s success into 2009.