Fox Starts TV Production For Cell Phones

prostoalex writes "Broadcasting television to the cell phones, which few people were actually interested in, is becoming a reality pretty fast, as Fox started making mopisodes (one-minute episodes targeted specifically for the mobile phone screen) to be broadcast on Vodafone and Verizon networks. The Fox announcement timed perfectly with Vodafone launching a broad variety of 3G services in Europe."

FOX

[Anonymous Coward]

can we really trust a biased source like this to give us shitty 1 minute episodes? president bush strikes again.

CNN Coverage

[calibanDNS]

CNN's coverage can be found here [cnn.com].

Re:"Mopisode"

[That's Unpossible!]

No, a trailer is a preview for an upcoming movie. It is called a trailer because it used to trail the movies. Then the marketing guys came in and said, "Hey, more people will watch these movie ads if we stick them at the FRONT of the movie!"

However, I do believe mopisode is stupid sounding and probably/hopefully won't catch on.

Really common here in Korea

[Jack Porter]

The 3G phones here can do streaming video (including cable TV) and it's really common to see my coworkers watching the latest movie trailer on their phones.

You pay per packet, and for content for some 'premium' stuff like music videos, and it's a relatively closed system so the telco and the content providers love it.

Other places to watch trailers on a phone

[tepples]

The distraction of driving while using a cell phone has already drawn the legal ire of a number of states and localities, and rightly so. Watching a FOX "mopisode" could be deadly.

Who's to say a driver would be watching such programs? Ever heard of carpooling or public transportation (bus, train, etc), the same places Nintendo expects grown-ups to touch their DS systems?

Re:Why is it Different in the US?

[Kintanon]

I do customer service for Verizon Wireless. People in the US expect their phone provider to give them a new phone every 8 months or so for free. They expect this because they pay a monthly fee for their service. Somehow they think that the service doesn't cost Verizon anything to provide them, so their 39.99 a month is pure profit. We make about 1$ per month on each customer in profit. When customers go over their minutes we make more. But if every 8 months we give a phone to that customer that cost us 100$ to get from the manufacturer (And retails for 250) all of a sudden we've paid that customer to use our service. I just want to know why these customers feel like they are entitled to free stuff just because they paid their bill on time? Do cellphone customers in Europe and Japan do that?

Kintanon

Re:Before they do that...

[Kintanon]

If you live in the New York Metro area then rush hour is never going to get better. We've saturated the area with cell towers, but each tower can only carry so many calls. When all of you people get on the phone at once when you get off work there just isn't enough infrastructure to carry the calls. The deadspots in the cities are usually caused by dense buildings like parking garages between you and the cell tower. Older skyscrapers will also kill the signal.

Kintanon

Rupert is The King.

[scum-e-bag]

I, for one, will call this a success. Rupert Murdoch is running this operation. Any Australians who know the history of Rupert and his Media Empire know that he makes the correct decision more often than not. With the full listing of News Corp on the NYSE and the re-incorporation of the company to the US only just having taken place it is to be expected that some very positive news will start to flow about the fox group and its related companies. Expect a barrage of good news after the company is listed in the S&P-500. You Americans would do well to watch his moves carefully... Rupert is the king.

The "Wow, Cool!" factor is dead

[nysus]

The market for consumer products that bank on the cool factor to sell goods and services is quickly shrinking. When every product is cool, nothing's cool anymore. I'm officially getting off the gizmo treadmill. Who wants to keep shelling out $300 every few months for some super-wham-o-dyne gadget that's going to be superseded by another super-super-wham-o-dyne gadget in two months?

Maybe I'm just getting old. How do you younger kids feel? You bored by these things, too?