O2 starts cutting content providers

While the actual percentage deal which O2 UK has struck with Apple remains the subject of speculation - most observers fell it is between ten and 30 per cent of revenues generated - the knock-on effect is already happening.

In terms of games providers to the O2 portal, the company seems to have decided to cut back drastically.

Previously it was dealing with around 30 different content providers but now O2 has struck a deal which reduces that number to eight.

One of those companies, however, is Player X which has been appointed as O2's official aggregator for its mobile games catalogue.

Reading between the lines, games may be just the first content sector which gets rationalised. It will be interesting to see if other areas - such as ringtones and wallpapers - quickly follow suit. µ