On the Hot Seat With Douglas Craig

Discovery Mobile's content can be found through a variety of channels. The firm’s streaming video content can be found on Sprint and through MobiTV and its video-on-demand clips can be found on Alltel, Helio and Verizon Wireless. Discovery’s Vice President of New Media Douglas Craig recently talked with FierceMobileContent Editor-in-Chief Sue Marek about repurposed vs. original content, consumer mobile video viewing habits and the business model for this innovative form of entertainment.

FierceMobileContent: Mobile virtual network operator Amp’d Mobile recently filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets to Prexar Mobile. Amp’d offered Discovery Mobile content to its subscribers. Is this a big loss for Discovery?

Craig: It’s a short-term issue for us. We would have liked to see Amp’d succeed. As an industry, we learned a lot about what they went through. We’re still bullish on mobile and we still think the growth is there. We look at this as a short-term loss. We are confident we will make up for it.

FierceMobileContent: What content has been most successful on the mobile channel?

Craig: That’s a very good question. I think there is still a long way to go in terms of getting better audience reporting on what people are watching. For the most part, the data we are getting back from our carrier partners is top-line data. How many people are tuning in? What is the duration of their viewing? We haven’t received a lot of data about specific clips people are watching. On the VOD [video-on-demand] clip side we will get that level of detail but we just launched with VCAST and Helio last month so it’s too early to comment on that.
We believe in having a mixture of content. We want some content that is related to the key programs on our networks, because people gravitate to those and we also have original made-for-mobile content. We are very curious to see what the dynamics are like. Is it similar to linear in terms of popularity or are there things that will surprise us.

FierceMobileContent: I’ve heard from a few different sources, including a major analyst firm that monitors this area, that people are watching mobile video content longer than expected.

Craig: I’ve heard that too. As a content provider, we look at it from a different perspective. There’s this debate: Is it going to be short-form clips that work in mobile or is it long-form programs? We think it will be both. We are lucky to be in a position where we own the majority of the rights to our content so we can do both. I’ve heard stories of people watching full-length movies over a period of time. Others say it’s all about clips. I think there will be platform for both. We are lucky to be flexible.

FierceMobileContent: Tell me your philosophy on original vs. repurposed content.

Craig: We do both original and repurposed content. Having such a strong television brand, people gravitate toward shows that they like so we think there will always be a place for us to use content related to our shows in the mobile space. We are also doing what we call, “pre-purposed” content, which I consider to be original. For example, when a show is in production we will go to the production company and say while you are in production, we’d love to have some made-for-mobile content as well. It’s a hybrid. It’s repurposed because it’s related to a show but it is also new material. With new material you can frame it for mobile. It makes for a stronger viewing experience on a mobile handset.

FierceMobileContent: I’ve heard that when you are doing content specifically for mobile, there are different ways of shooting it for viewing on a handset. Does Discovery do this?

Craig: Yes. We use the phrase “light and tight.” We want things to be lighted well and shot very close up. In other words, in a linear TV experience people may stay away from talking heads because it’s not always the best viewing experience. But on a 2.5 inch screen, talking heads are good. There are a lot of great shows, like “Planet Earth” with panoramic shots that are breathtaking. But that doesn’t work on a mobile device. When we did mobile content around “Planet Earth,” instead of doing sweeping shots of the Himalayan mountains we were interviewing the camera people asking them what it was like to work in those conditions.

Music and graphics are important too. Bigger fonts are better on a small screen. If you selected the same graphics as linear TV it would be very small.

FierceMobileContent: Why does Discovery content lend itself well to the mobile phone?

Craig: We own most of the underlying rights so that makes it easier for us to produce this content. Plus we do mostly non-fiction programming so when we have a program like “Dirty Jobs” or “Little People Big World” on TLC, you can watch one episode and then you can skip a couple of episodes and you wouldn’t miss much. We don’t have story arcs from one episode to another. Our programming also has takeaways that people like. We have knowledge nuggets in our programming that people like.

We’re launching a series called “Animal Crackers” that is a made-for-mobile series. We take popular animal metaphors and we debunk them or tell you where they came from. One example is “hair of the dog.” We have comedians first tell you what they think the origin of that phrase is and then we have a professor tell you the real meaning.

FierceMobileContent: What do you think of the mobile broadcast systems such as MediaFLO and Hiwire?

Craig: We have been in conversations with MediaFLO and with Hiwire. Those conversations continue. We have done testing with them. We want to work with all of them. We are platform neutral. We want to be where consumers are.

FierceMobileContent: What is the best business model for mobile video content?

Craig: I don’t think it’s been figured out yet. I think we will see changes. We will work with everybody.