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Apps not where it's at for Endemol  MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT 2009: Having been one of the first TV production companies to embrace made-for-mobile content, Endemol UK's enthusiasm for the platform has waned over the past few years. Digital media MD Peter Cowley tells Jonathan Webdale why. Endemol UK's passion for mobile has ebbed and flowed. Spurred on by the early popularity of text messaging and mobile video around Big Brother, the firm started dreaming of having its own mobile TV channels. But that was several years ago, before the challenges of the medium had truly sunk in. The mobile TV channels never saw the light of day but the company did score minor successes with several made-for-mobile series.  Get Close To
Sugababes (left) ran on the O2 network in the UK and Verizon in the US, and was licensed as a format to Spanish mobile operator Movistar in 2006. Cell, a made-for-mobile thriller produced with Mobstar Media, debuted on O2 in the UK in 2007 and ran on Sony's Crackle.com in the US. It picked up the Best Multi-Screen prize at C21's Format Awards last year.The fact that Cell also found a home online is telling. The broadband content market has evolved far more quickly than that of mobile, particularly on the advertising side of things. All of which has left Endemol UK digital media MD Peter Cowley (below) pretty despondent about the sector. "Three or four years ago I was very optimistic because the amount of video usage around Big Brother was very high. Then we got into things like Get Close To and then Cell and I was reasonably encouraged," says Cowley. "Then, about two years ago, I got a bit more pessimistic and we didn't launch the channels we were going to launch, downplayed our plans and moved a lot of them over to broadband, where we felt there was going to be a more established ad-funded market."  Cowley still doesn't see too many reasons to be cheerful, despite the success Endemol UK' has enjoyed with its EA-developed Deal or No Deal Java game and the ongoing popularity of Big Brother video. In fact, he's increasingly convinced that the mobile phone simply isn't an entertainment-driven device but is more about practical tools."What consumers use the phone for isn't necessarily content. It's about functionality and useful applications, rather than playing games or watching video. Of course they do some of that, but it's still a minority in comparison with using email, IM, maps or other standard online applications." Apple announced in January that half-a-billion software applications for its iPhone and iPod Touch devices had been downloaded from iTunes, with 25,000 different 'apps' available. Some TV companies, such as MTV, have started developing their own apps to try to tap into this rapidly growing - if not yet hugely lucrative - market. But despite his overall enthusiasm for the iPhone and the impact Apple has had in terms of shaking up the mobile industry, Cowley says the rise of the app only serves to underline his argument. "The iPhone has made things better or at least shown the glimmer of hope for the future with having a nearly open apps network, but in many ways the slightly depressing thing about it is that it shows that phones are about apps, not necessarily about content," says Cowley. "On TV, everyone says content is king, but I get the sense that on mobile's it's a device where apps are the most important thing, whether that's a game, a map, an email client, or a virtual Zippo lighter. You can't quite call that content in the same way that we do on TV, or even the web." So for the time being Endemol is staying out of the apps business, since Cowley says it means straying too far from what his company does best. "We are a content creator and those apps aren't necessarily content, in my mind. But if you're a broadcaster like MTV you're in the business of getting audiences and consumers, and if you get those through applications that's fine, but that's not our business." He says that until mobile has developed as a market for ad-funded content it doesn't make sense for Endemol to create programming solely for the platform, which means no more projects like Get Close To , and in the instance of others like Cell, these must be made to work online as well. "It doesn't mean I've given up on mobile but it's just part of the portfolio now. We're not going to do dedicated stuff for mobile. Online you can create new brands. Mobile's still basic in its ability to do that," says Cowley. Jonathan Webdale 9 Mar 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
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