Sky, HBO, Disney, Sony Pictures, Zed and Gracenote hold forth.
The opening panel session at the second day of MEM 2010 focused on multi-platform entertainment, and how big media owners are slotting mobile into their strategies.
The panel included Emma Lloyd from Sky; Stanley Fertig from HBO; Miguel Lopez Quesada from Zed; Tim Wright from Sony Pictures; Ty Roberts from Gracenote; and Sunil Gunderia from Disney.
"If you are an HBO subscriber on one platform, we are going to try to make it available to you on other platforms," said Fertig, explaining HBO's 'TV Everywhere' strategy. However, he said that mobile remains "a work in progress" for HBO.
Meanwhile, Gunderia explained that Disney is also looking to bring its traditional businesses to new platforms, including mobile. One new venture is its Readalong franchise, which has spawned several iPad apps.
"The parent can record their voice reading the story, the kid can colour then send it to their parent via email... It's really about how you take the mobile platform and engage with the consumer with interactivity, rather than just slapping a book onto it."
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Quesada talked about Zed's work to make different platforms work together, such as with its TV/mobile dating service. "We had 300,000 to 400,000 people viewing and participating," he said. "We were very happy with that."
Cross-platform doesn't just mean TV to mobile. Gracenote's Roberts talked about how his company is working with car manufacturers, who are adding cellular connectivity to their cars.
"They're making the automobile into an application platform, building web services and even Wi-Fi into the vehicles," he says, citing the example of BMW's mobile app that works with its newest cars - which even lets people update their Facebook status while driving by speaking.
"It's bringing that car into the whole ecosystem of the user, with the handset that gives you the location and presence of the human," he said.
He also offered an interesting perspective on where iPhone fits into this. "Apple was unable to make the car into a peripheral," he said. "The mobile handset is a peripheral for the car."
The panel were asked about operators ditching their unlimited data tariffs, and whether this is a concern.
"Certainly it's a return to some of the concerns that existed and were a significant inhibitor to the usage of mobile entertainment on mobile devices three or four years ago," said Lloyd.
However, she said that Sky's experience is that many of its users are watching TV over Wi-Fi rather than 3G, and often at home.
Would Sky consider paying for that data usage over 3G though, or sharing ad revenues with an operator?
"That's not something which is being considered at the moment," said Lloyd. "The complication is there are so many applications using that data, how do you start to identify which one is using the lion's share and therefore should be contributing to that? That sounds too complicated."
Meanwhile, Gunderia was asked about potential friction between content owners and platform gatekeepers like Apple.
"This is the first time people are actually using their mobile devices to consume content," he said. "Apple protect their consumer and drive a hard deal, but ultimately we're getting something positive out of it as an industry in terms of consumption, and huge opportunities going forward."
Sony's Wright was asked about the DECE initiative, of which Sony is a part. Is it a problem if Apple isn't on board? "We would love to have Apple within DECE, but they have chosen not to join at the moment," he said. "It's not an issue."
Zed has actually released its own movie - Planet 51 - and launched games and mobile content around it. Quesada gave more details on the company's '360 degree' approach.
"It's important that we don't consider mobile as just a device, but as an entry point for the consumer to interact with the content," he said.
"We talk about the iPhone, which is great, but what's really becoming massive is the smartphone install base. For entertainment, we need great content and a great user experience. Devices are definitely the key for that. It's a great time for entertainment, I think."
