@ CTIA: NBC Scores Multi-Carrier Deal; Says It Has Usable Spectrum For Wireless; Hulu Mobile?
By Tricia Duryee - Mon 31 Mar 2008 04:10 PM PST
After several somewhat negative panels at the pre-CTIA Billboard event today (two titles: What sucks? and Who’s dropping the ball?), George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal’s (NYSE: GE) chief digital officer, left the audience on a positive note, saying patience is the key. He said the industry will have to figure things out just as the online video industry went through a learning curve: “We were at a similar log jam a year and a half ago. There wasn’t a lot of premium video being released (online) in a consumer-friendly way, so we decided to launch a joint venture (Hulu.com) and go down that path. I don’t know why we couldn’t do something similar for mobile.”
A few highlights from the presentation:
-- The Olympics: NBC will incorporate mobile advertising as part of the ad sales for the Olympics, and will create live programming and video highlights on MediaFLO. He said the event has the chance to be a big game changer. “It will be the single largest digital media event ever, whether it’s a watershed moment that will drive the next generation of content.”
-- NBC’s multi-carrier deal: Today, NBC announced a content deal in which Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Research In Motion will carry ad-supported NBC mobile sites. Alltel (NYSE: AT) announced a similar deal in July. Subscribers will have access to more than 60 WAP sites, including NBC, NBC Sports, USA Network, Sci Fi Channel, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Universal Pictures and Astrology.com. JumpTap will provide the ad network. (Release.)
-- Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) isn’t the only one: Kliavkoff had one thing to say about the iPhone: “I think it would be great if they supported Flash.”
-- Hulu Mobile coming?: “The concept of putting multiple partners together to create a good destination on mobile devices is something we are interested in, but who knows if that would be under the Hulu brand or not – that’s total speculation.”
-- On the spectrum auction: Kliavkoff said that when they were trying to decide whether they should bid in the recent spectrum auction, they took an inventory of all their current holdings. Turns out of all the NBC TV properties, about 25-30 percent of their spectrum isn’t being used, and with Telemundo, even more isn’t being used—about 65 percent (even after launching a compressed HD offering). The spectrum is “available to us to do whatever,” including a wireless service, he said. Most likely, it would be done with the help of a partner, he added.
Posted in: Companies, NBCU, Conferences, CTIA
Tags: george kliavkoff
