FEATURE: U.K. operators push for a communal garden

U.K. operators push for a communal garden

By Nick Lane
Nick Lane is principal analyst, Mobile Content & Applications, Informa Telecoms & Media.

Direct-to-consumer or off-deck once was conceived as a threat by European mobile operators looking to safeguard the potential revenues generated from content enclosed within their own portal. Along came a frog--supported by an extensive cross-media marketing campaign--and the wireless operators looked on in horror as their revenues started "hopping" off-deck. Following the success of Jamba/Jamster's Crazy Frog push, brands became increasingly frustrated at the limitations imposed on their content by the on-deck model and started exploring opportunities beyond the operator deck. Television, online and print campaigns jettisoned into the mass media and spawned the short code and premium SMS payment mechanisms prevalent throughout Europe today.

U.K. operators have borne the brunt of the rise of direct-to-consumer, more than any other nation. In 2006, more than 70 percent of content revenues were off-deck. That figure is creeping toward 75 percent this year, and looks set to hit 80 percent by 2010. But the extent to which off-deck is wounding the mobile operators--in the United Kingdom in particular--largely depends on their ability to adapt to this changing marketplace or face the unfavorable label of dumb pipe.

Read the rest of this feature here on the FierceMobileContent website.