Made-for-mobile TV flourishing

IT'S THE smaller specialist players who are genuinely dominating the mobile TV sector. On the back of geekTV's success, Player X has just landed $9.85 million (£5 million) worth of extra funding.

The news follows the recent revelation that Virgin Mobile TV has only acquired some 7,000 subscribers in around four months. That's despite a multimillion-pound (circa £2.5 million) advertising campaign featuring Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch actress.

Plus at Rok TV, marketing director, Bruce Renny, claims that his company's FreeBe TV offering now has some 130,000 subscribers in 120 countries worldwide. "China has taken off big style," Renny told the INQ.

Player X's performance is just as impressive. He wouldn't reveal actual subscriber figures, but Player X CEO, Tony Pearce, pointed out that geekTV has risen to the number three slot with 3 UK.

"That's behind big hitters like ITV1 and ITN which isn't too bad for an unbranded channel. You can see how popular 'made-for-mobile' TV content is with 3's subscribers," he claimed.

"We met with many mobile content companies but what excited us about Player X was not only its impressive games business, but also its leadership in mobile video," revealed Larry McDonald, a partner with Nordic Venture Partners - one of the two VCs that has just funded Player X. µ

L'INQS
Rok TV
Player X
Virgin Mobile TV