Studios get savvy about mobile content

It's a sign of mobile content's maturity. Mobile video content is no longer being retrofitted for mobile. Instead movie studios and TV production houses are conceptualizing the mobile content tie-in to their TV shows and movies at the same time the show is scripted. Whether it's a mobile game, premium SMS campaign or mobile-only clip, mobile video content is becoming much more innovative and compelling for mobile viewers.

This is a far cry from a year or so ago when the mobile content tie-ins to TV shows were afterthoughts and limited to 30-second clip previews.

I recently talked with Marie Jacobson, executive vice president of programming and production at Sony Pictures Television International about Sony's strategy for the mobile platform. She confirmed what I've noticed over the past few months: Studios are taking mobile more seriously and working on the content from the early stages of development. As Jacobson said, "If it's a retrofit to mobile or to Internet, it feels like it. Consumers are too wise for that. In mature markets, the mobile consumer is looking for specific content that speaks to them as a mobile consumer."

But at the same time, she was candid about the fact that dedicating resources to mobile video content is a costly proposition, one that doesn't always pay off for the studio. And like every other type of entertainment, there is no guarantee a mobile video program will be successful. "There is no recipe and there is no formula," Jacobson says.  

See more of my interview with Jacobson below or at the FierceMobileContent website. -Sue