Should a member of your audience in Paris see the exact same content as someone viewing from Paris?

Many times the answer to that question is no, meaning that as the process for globally distributing digital content continues to get faster, cheaper and easier, content developers now have a new challenge —

How do we package and present what we build in a way that maximizes its value to an audience, no matter where on the planet that audience might be located?

One strategy content developers can use to help better serve this global audience is something known as geo targeting.

In a nutshell, geo targeting is the process of capturing a user’s ip address or other identifying information, checking that info against a database that suggests the likely geographic location of that user, and then serving up targeted, customized content based on those results.

Though used for delivering all types of content, one area where the use of geo targeting is rapidly spreading is in online advertising. If you’ve farmed out the management of your ad inventory to a third party advertising network like Google Adsense, the Yahoo Publisher Network, Quigo, Kanoodle etc… , then in many cases they are taking care of this geo targeting for you by placing ads with not only contextual relevence but geographic value as well.

Make no mistake. Those ad networks provide an awesome service and are playing a major part in empowering emerging content developers to monetize their work without having to worry about selling ads directly. But what if through hard work and good fortune you’ve grown to the point where you now want the ability to control your ad inventory to a much finer degree?

Have the tools to implement an ad delivery platform with geo targeting capabilities progressed to the point where they’re reliable and accessible to the small to mid sized independent content developer?

I was recently involved in building the infrastructure for a project that was looking to have this kind of geo targeting capability integrated into a self managed online advertising delivery platform. And based on what was learned during that experience I’d say the independent content developer and publisher does have some options.

Here’s a quick summary -

First, this project adopted an open source philosophy from the ground up going with a FreeBSD based virtual server running Apache, MySQL and PHP. This close cousin of LAMP was bundled with Wordpress as the CMS.

Since we were building on this type of foundation, staying with a MySQL/PHP based solution for the ad delivery component was the preferred option. After considering a couple of different packages out there, OpenAds was selected to handle advertising delivery and management.

I wasn’t familiar with OpenAds before this project, but am very quickly becoming a fan. The power it gives the publisher who wants to control their ad inventory is pretty impressive for an open source application.

Rather than going into great detail about OpenAds here, the best way to learn about it may be to check out the OpenAds online demo for yourself. It can provide you with a pretty good idea of what the app is all about.

If you’re accustomed to installing PHP/MySQL based apps like Wordpress, then the OpenAds download and installation process will likely be in your comfort zone. But if you need some help, that’s ok too as they offer consultancy services for large scale needs, and you can find freelance consultants in the forums as well.

screenshot of openads demo

Ok, so now that your ad delivery platform in place, how exactly do you add geo targeting capability?

Well, one nice thing about OpenAds is that most of the geo targeting groundwork is done for you in the existing code. One item that is left for you to do is acquire one of the GeoIP databases available from Max Mind. You can choose to either purchase, download and install a database on your own server or to subscribe to a web service from MaxMind and receive the information from their servers.

Once acquiring the database you plug it into OpenAds via filling out some form fields within your OpenAds admin area.

There are several geo targeting databases available from MaxMind. You can filter by country, region, city, zip code, area code and more. As one might expect, the more detailed your needs the more expensive your database will likely be.

openads table of maxmind geo targeting databases

You can also try before you buy. MaxMind offers lite versions of some of their databases that you can download and install into OpenAds for free. I went this route and installed their GeoLite City, which is similar to their more robust GeoIP® City Database paid version, just not as accurate and with no support. If you decide you need the extra accuracy and/or support a full version provides, then they drop in right on top of the lite versions.

Nice touch.

After downloading and installing the GeoLite City version, I built a down and dirty test ad campaign and designated it to only be delivered to users based in San Antonio, Texas. I then visited the site from a San Antonio ISP and received that ad. Next, I changed the campaign delivery options to not deliver the ad to San Antonio. I visited the site again and this time was not shown that ad and received a default banner instead.

Simple as that.

Further testing since then has proven the lite version of this database to be more accurate than I expected.

screenshot of selecting geo targeting delivery options in openads

Now if this all sounds too easy so far, then let’s balance things out for a moment here.

OpenAds does have a learning curve.

If you’re familiar with the online advertising world and the general concepts and language spoken there, that then that should help you some. But if you don’t know your Leaderboard from your Skyscraper then you may want spend a little time at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Among other resources, they offer a helpful rundown of ad unit guidelines that can help get you up to speed quickly.

With OpenAds you’re remarkably free to customize your online ad delivery strategy as you see fit, but if you’re going to be running ads from a wide variety of sources these ad units are the standards many entrenched media buyers look for.

Having spent some time in close proximity to the ad world, this part was familiar to me. Still, the actual step by step process for setting up my first campaign did involve some trial and error learning along the way. From this experience, I’d characterize the OpenAds documentation as adequate, but not exactly exceptional.

Also be aware that there are some scenarios where this approach to geo targeting may not produce the desired results. For example, a user visiting a web site during work from a corporate office on the west coast might be identified by the ip address assigned to the corporate headquarters on the east coast. I’d imagine that just about any user accessing the web via a proxy server runs a high risk of being misidentified.

Another scenario where geo targeting may force content on a user they do not want would be say an English speaking user visiting your site from Germany who doesn’t want to see German Language content or ads but actually wants the English version.

There are workarounds to issues like these, but it’s important to keep in mind that geo targeting isn’t foolproof.

Still, considering the extra power to customize what content you can deliver to your audience based on their location, the tradeoffs may be worth it to you.

Another benefit of adopting an ad delivery platform like OpenAds is that you can keep your existing Google Adwords, Yahoo Publisher Network etc… ads and rotate them with your new locally managed inventory.

In other words, if you don’t have an ad sold yourself, you can fill the inventory with an ad from one of the ad networks. This is a great feature that some of the newer ad networks like AdBrite offer as well.

One final note. The more I worked on this project the more I got to thinking that with a little work a content developer could adopt OpenAds as a vehicle for delivering all types of geo targeted content. Not just ads.

All the power and technology is there. Apply a little of your creativity and OpenAds could be a tool that helps you give your global audience more of what they’re looking for.

———–

A couple related items -

- When this project began, IP2Counry also offered a geo targeting database that worked with OpenAds, but sometime along the way they appear to have stopped selling it to the public.

- While working on this project, OpenAds raised $5 million in funding. And they’re hiring.

- The banner insertion code generated by OpenAds didn’t pass the XHTML validator without some tweaking. There are some solutions offered up on the OpenAds Community Forums. I tried this one which involves modifying some of the existing PHP files. It seemed to solve most of the problems, but am still trying to chase down one issue.

- Microsoft offers a Geo-Targeting Best Practices for advertisers. It’s a quick read and may help frame the issue from the advertiser’s perspective.

- If you’re looking for more help in understanding the language of the online ad man mad men, the IAB also offers a glossary of interactive advertising terms. UT Austin hosts a decent list of advertising terms but it appears to be missing some of the interactive and online advertising terminology. As of the date of this post, I did not see geo targeting listed in either.

- You may have seen this strategy referred to as one word GeoTargeting, two words as Geo Targeting, or hyphenated as Geo-Targeting. Not sure which is the best choice, but for this article Geo Targeting got the nod.

UPDATE 02-15-08: OpenAds has rebranded itself as OpenX. The OpenAds urls are being redirected to the new website at OpenX.org.

Content Developer has been tracking the progress of Brats - Our Journey Home since first learning about the project a couple years ago. Writer/Producer/Director Donna Musil recently checked in with an update.

She has the project out on a nationwide tour now - including a stop in San Antonio Tuesday March 20 7PM at the Aztec Theater and in Austin on Friday March 23rd at the St. Edward’s University Jones Auditorium. Screenings will include a Q&A with Donna after the show.

The film is narrated by Kris Kristofferson. Here’s a trailer:

You can find more screening locations and dates here and can purchase the DVD here. Also be listening for a NPR segment about the movie later this month on All Things Considered.

Best of luck with the tour Donna.

Do you remember that TV commercial that ran heavily during the Web 1.0 Dot Com bubble with the guy traveling in a futuristic wilderness expressing the desire to download every movie, every tv show, every piece of content, anywhere, on demand? Funny, I can’t recall the brand behind the ad (I believe it was for one of the upstart bandwidth or infrastructure providers that were popping up all over during that time) but I pictured that spot as that still illusive dream it expressed took another step toward becoming reality with the launch of the Netflix Watch Now on demand movie download feature in January.

Netflix Watch Now button is starting to appear for members

I’ve been a Netflix customer for about 4 years and with Watch Now being rolled out to members incrementally over the next six months I was happy to see that new Watch Now button appear in my account recently.

Here’s a recap of my experience with the Watch Now service so far.

Getting Started

To begin using the Watch Now service subscribers have to download and install the Netflix Movie Viewer, a special player that appears to work within the Windows Media Player DRM and content licensing framework. My experience was that the download was fast and the install was clean. So far so good, except if you’re a Mac user as I could find no option for installing the player on that platform.

Next, Netflix checked my available bandwidth to see what quality tier it could deliver movies at. Netflix currently breaks down their tiers of service like this:

High - 1.6 to 2.2+ Mbps
Good - 1.0 Mbps
Basic - 500 Kbps

I did a quick check on the CNET Bandwidth Meter to see where my RoadRunner connection was currently performing.

Results of bandwidth test of my RR connection

Watch Now correctly detected which tier my bandwidth would support and classified me for the High tier.

So, a couple minutes total investment and we are off to the movies.

Using Watch Now

One of the first things I noticed when I began my search for movies to view with Watch Now was the lack of inventory to choose from compared to Netflix’s complete movie library. On my first visit, many of the titles being promoted on the Watch Now opening page would likely be considered by most viewers to be less than premium content, but on the upside it seems that new content is being added at a very quick pace with new titles popping up every time I return. If the usual suspects like licensing issues and the challenges of physically digitizing content are responsible for this reduced selection that’s probably good news as obstacles like these are to be expected and usually work themselves out.

There are some good titles available already and Run Lola Run jumped out as a decent candidate to try out for an inaugural test run. The main thing I was looking out for first was how fast the Now in Watch Now translates into.

The answer? 11 seconds. That’s how long it took from my selecting the movie to the time it started to play. About comparable to opening a jewel case and putting a DVD into a traditional player. Pretty good I thought.

The quality of the movie looked decent on a couple year old 19 inch Samsung Syncmaster 191T flatscreen monitor. Few jaggies or compression artifacts jumped out at me and there was zero stuttering. All in all the picture quality met my expectations, but for some reason it looked like I was getting a 4X3 pan and scan version of this particular movie so I went looking for another title to try out on a bigger screen.

Projecting Watch Now on an 80 inch screen

First, some quick background on the test gear — A little over five years ago I was in the market for a new tv and while researching the latest choices I learned about a site known as the AVS FORUM and its’ wealth of knowledge about something known as the HTPC, or Home Theater Personal Computer. After spending some time there I decided to scrap my original plan to buy a big screen tv and traditional home entertainment system and chose to instead build my own HTPC and use it to power a home theater projector. This was before things like Windows XP Media Center edition, so it took a little effort to build a user friendly system. But the payoff has been a nice one. HDMI and broadband movie download services were really nowhere at that time either, so the goal back then was to construct a pure digital pathway for your traditional DVD based movie content from your HTPC to your projector via a DVI connection thus avoiding any potentially degrading analog to digital or digital to analog conversions.

So I built my HTPC relying on an ATI Radeon video card and the Theatertek DVD Player to project movies with a Plus Piano HE-3100 projector on a Da-Lite screen. The Piano is getting a little long in the tooth now, but it was a breakthrough DLP projector at the time and I still use this setup today to watch DVD’s on an 80 inch screen.

But how will Watch Now hold up in this big screen environment?

To answer this questions I ordered up one of my favorite movies, The Hunt For Red October, from Watch Now and settled in to see.

In short, I was pleasantly surprised. Seeing firsthand how unwatchable Youtube video can sometimes be on the big screen, I was prepared for the Watch Now picture to degrade to a point of being distracting when blown up to 80 inches. But, with the exception of the text based title sequences, that wasn’t the case. What I did find was that the picture quality was what I would describe as soft compared to DVD quality, though still of high enough quality to create a satisfying movie experience. You might say the quality is better than VHS but not quite as good as traditional DVD.

To help you visualize, here’s some screen shots captured with a Kodak Easy Share camera of the Watch Now version of The Hunt For Red October projected on an 80 inch screen:

It’s tough to be precise with screen shots like this, so let’s just say that the Watch Now picture quality is far from perfect and an obsessed videophile could easily pick it apart. Having said that though, I think the average viewer will find the quality to be more than adequate for enjoying a movie right away at home. The threshold question for me is are there are any distractions caused by technology to take me out of the movie? And for me Watch Now passed that test.

The Marketing Strategy of Watch Now

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was one of the first people I saw frame the ongoing disruptions in content distribution as the forces of freedom vs. the forces of control.

Google Video of Reed Hastings on Charlie Rose

If you buy the argument Hastings makes, then the way Netflix has chosen to implement Watch Now into its existing service may be a great case study of a company actually practicing what they preach.

As a Netflix subscriber you receive Watch Now as an add on to your existing subscription at no additional cost, receiving one hour of Watch Now service for every dollar of your subscription rate. For example, a typical Netflix subscriber on the 3 out at a time $17.99 a month plan will receive 18 hours of Watch Now service a month, or about 9 movies worth, all as a no cost addition to their existing plan.

Screenshot of how Netfilx tracks your Watch Now activity

After having been with the service for a number of years I was getting a wandering eye, starting to consider other services like Blockbuster Total Access which has that nice brick and mortar component that Netflix lacks. But with the new value that Watch Now adds to my existing Netflix subscription, I now lean much more toward staying loyal.

Watch Now also lays the groundwork for the complete transition from DVD delivery to digital download delivery while still allowing customers to take that journey at their own pace. Early adopters who have their own technology already in place can take full advantage of the Watch Now service right away while those that aren’t set up for it or who simply prefer to keep getting their movies by mail can keep doing what they’re doing. No matter where a content consumer is in that adoption cycle, Netflix remains a viable option.

What does Watch Now mean for content developers?

For content developers with film or video projects in need of distribution, Watch Now doesn’t appear to immediately offer any new options for you. Netflix does supply a method for submitting your film to them but encourages those with content looking for distribution on Netflix to form a relationship with an established distribution company.

Here’s how Netflix explains it:

Netflix is not always able to purchase films directly from the film’s owner and may suggest a third-party distributor as an alternative method for making your film available on Netflix.

The subscription model. Where to from here?

Some consumers like to buy their content and own it, while others like to rent it. Most of us do a little of both, but I’m one of those that likes the flat rate subscription model in both the film, video and audio world. One of the primary reasons for this is the ease with which you can sample new content. Ultimately for fans of that content subscription model it would be nice to have one service that delivered all of that content on demand, in one place, from one vendor.

As scenarios like that continue to circulate I wonder if there is an argument to be made for Netflix to acquire a service like Rhapsody which could provide perhaps a Listen Now component to go with the Watch Now service? This might make sense from both a consumer standpoint as well as for NFLX stockholders.

An acquisition like that could get us another step closer to the day when every movie, every tv show and every song is available to you any place at any time.

Just like that commercial promised.

————-

Related post: Video Demo of Watch Now service.

Related story: Netflix recently shipped its one billionth dvd rental to a customer down the road in neighboring Helotes.

Hacking Netflix offers a first look at the new Netflix Watch Now electronic delivery option:

New service will roll out over the next six months at no additional cost to subscribers - who’ll receive a set number of hours based on their subscription option.

From the Netflix press release:

…subscribers on Netflix’s most popular plan, $17.99 for unlimited DVD rental and three discs out at a time, will have 18 hours of online movie watching per month.

Via Paidcontent.org.

What happens when Content squares off against Distribution in a battle over the audience?

ContentDeveloper.com has been focusing recently on the variety of strategies brands and content owners are deploying to transform themselves into their own distribution platforms. An interesting twist on this emerging trend is currently playing out here in San Antonio and in other markets across the country between the NFL Network and Time Warner Cable.

The contest pits arguably one of the most attractive content brands in the US against one of the most powerful content distribution companies, all happening with both parties caught in the crosswinds of our quickly changing distribution landscape. If there’s a matchup that can tell us whether Content or Distribution has hand today, this may be the one.

But could this high profile negotiation also have larger implications for the industry as a whole due to one of the party’s somewhat peculiar pivot in their position regarding a la carte programming. More about that in a moment.

First, the distribution issue.

If you haven’t been following the story, the game breaks down basically like this - the NFL wants to be on the expanded basic cable programming tier where the majority of cable subscribers can access it. Time Warner Cable wants the NFL Network to be on a premium sports tier where cable subscribers will have to pay extra to get it.

Being a Time Warner Cable customer I’m among those unable to enjoy the new Thursday Night and Saturday Night Football. Watching those games and the 24-7 football related content the NFL Network offers would be nice, but so far it looks like it’s not quite a big enough deal to most people (myself included) to go through the hassle of dropping cable and setting up a dish.

A good measure of this audience complacency though will be the Cowboys game scheduled for Saturday night on the NFL Network. San Antonio is often among the highest rated Cowboys’ television markets right behind DFW, so if this can’t provide any Romomentum for a breakthrough then perhaps nothing will.

Time Warner San Antonio President John Owen Jr.’s recent characterization of the situation as reported here would suggest that they remain comfortable enough with the stalemate:

We’re not even negotiating at this point in time.

I wonder if that position might’ve softened some if U-verse was currently available in more than just a few neighborhoods?

Now, about the a la carte…

Did one of the plays run during this matchup produce a lingering injury that could impact one of the teams in other big games down the road? My clumsy sports metaphor is referring to this rationale offered by TWC on why the NFL Network should be on a higher priced premium tier:

Not all of our customers are interested in the NFL. Why should they pay for that high-priced programming?

That’s from Time Warner Cable San Antonio spokesman Jon Gary Herrera as reported here. It’s a position worthy of some support, but then you have to wonder about this:

The channels you don’t watch subsidize the channels you do watch.

That’s from the National Cable Television Association regarding their position against a la carte pricing.

The NFL Network has picked up on this vulnerability as well, offering a response on their I Want NFL Network site:

Your cable company says it thinks only the people who want the channel should have to pay for it. This is not how they package their programming to you, is it? You get a whole bunch of channels you don

It’s no secret that new technology and alternative platforms are empowering today’s audiences with the tools and techniques to more easily avoid blunt force marketing methods like the traditional TV spot break. As the number of viewers, listeners and users embracing this kind of control over their media life grows, those content creators relying on an advertising based business model must find new ways to connect brands with consumers.

One of the apparent ironies emerging from this shifting landscape is the rediscovery of a strategy that’s been around since the beginning of electronic mass media - Branded Programming.

In the pioneering days of radio and television, advertisers played a prominent role in the creation of content. This arrangement worked relatively well as it helped get the then emerging OTA broadcast platform off the ground with a critical mass of content in a short amount of time. This approach also gave us some not so subtle merging of sponsor and show like the Texaco Star Theater, Kraft Television Theater, etc…

By no means was it a perfect system, but hindsight would suggest that despite any warts it turned out to be a pretty reasonable trade off.

Product Placement 1.0:

A funny thing happened along the way though. Over the years for some reason the advertiser seemingly surrendered a bit of their power. Whether this occurred willingly or not may depend on who you talk to, but there is a pretty good argument to be made that the advertiser’s weakened hand allowed the networks and other distribution channels to do what the corporate wealth maximizer is trained to do - leverage to the fullest your ability to control your content and limit access to your audience to the highest bidders.

But now as we witness the democracy of distribution continue to evolve, are those scales of leverage beginning to tip back in the other direction? Could it be that what’s old really is new again?

Will the advertiser once again lead the way in creating a critical mass of content for this new era of emerging distribution platforms?

For an interesting take on where the future of Branded Entertainment is heading and how the advertiser is poised to seize back control of the content creation process tune in to this podtech.net podcast interview with Kevin Townsend from Science + Fiction.

The Gospel of Self Publication is a phrase Kevin uses to frame the issue and his prediction on where the industry will be five years from now will give you an idea of the spirit of the interview:

Advertisers become the new 800 pound Gorilla in the programming world. They’ve always asserted their power indirectly through what — where they put ad money in as far as media buys, now they assert it as content creators. So you will see McDonalds, you’ll see Ford, you’ll see Red Bull, you’ll see any number and all of the large advertisers in the world creating their own content and distributing them, either themselves or via your distribution cartels that will allow them to reach and hold large groups of consumers via programming as a means of marketing.

Highly recommended listening for Content Developers searching for new ideas, information and inspiration on how to distribute and monetize your content, how to build a brand using content, or ultimately …

How can you turn your brand into its own distribution platform?

If you’re unable to listen to the mp3 you can check out the transcript.

Note: If your focus is heavily on marketing, be sure and also check out PodTech’s Marketing Voices series of podcast interviews hosted by Jennifer Jones.

Note 2: If you’re interested in more examples of early product placement, you might find this NPR story worth a look as it includes links to archived video of The Men from Texaco and an animated short of the Disney characters working hard to sell some Standard Oil.

Image from the Eyewire Photodisc Motion Library, now a part of Getty Images.

Cingular Ad on AmericanIdol.com

In some earlier posts we’ve been looking at how the small to medium sized Content Developer can use open source SMS Text Messaging to deliver content to mobile devices.

SMS can be a solid strategy for getting your content into the hands of a mobile audience. But how can the Content Developer make is easier for your mobile audience to communicate back to you?

One way is by getting your own Common Short Code.

A Common Short Code (CSC, Short Code) is one of those four, five or six digit codes that content providers use to make it easy for a mobile audience to text messages back to them.

American Idol uses Short Codes to help collect votes. Fox Sports Radio lets you send text messages to their in studio hosts via their own CSC. Those are just a few examples of the way Common Short Codes have quickly moved into the communications mainstream. Many would even argue that short codes are now the first choice way to respond for the younger demographics many advertisers crave to reach.

Alright, we get it. Short Codes are the bomb. So how exactly do you get a Common Short Code of your own to help you build relationships with your content’s audience?

In the United States, Common Short Codes are administered by the Common Short Code Administration.

According to the CSCA, leasing your own code will cost you $500 a month for a random code and $1000 a month for a custom code. A three month minimum is required.

But just leasing the code doesn’t get you there. You’ll still need to negotiate agreements with each of the wireless carriers to activate your short code. And approval is up to them. Here is how the CSCA explains the process:

Each participating wireless service provider must decide for itself whether or not to accept the routing of your CSC within their network. Wireless service providers will make their decision based on a number of criteria, including i) the content provider; ii) their experience in working with you and your partners; iii) the type of CSC application; iv) the amount and type of promotion of the CSC; v) the estimated message volumes; vi) the timing of your CSC; and vii) the number of other CSC applications in implementation.

Still interested? Apply for your own Common Short Code today.

You can WHOIS Short Codes to see who the owner is and there is a US Short Code Directory to search for content owners short code.

Coming soon I’ll be looking at some third party solution providers that are trying to reduce the number of these hoops you need to jump through to use common short codes to communicate with your mobile audience.

YouTube Enclosure

Thought the latest report on high speed services released yesterday by the FCC was an appropriate occasion to revisit this viral from The Daily Show.

A couple items stood out in the report, including the total number of high speed lines moving past the 50 million mark and that this is the first time, according to the FCC release, that more additions of DSL lines occurred than cable modem lines. The FCC study reports that during the second half of 2005 DSL added 3.2 million lines while cable added 1.6 million lines. In a world that focuses so heavily on market share and churn, how will the cable industry respond to that reported 2 to 1 growth rate discrepancy? Short term blip or dangerous trend?

While reading the release I learned about a FCC statistics hub known as the The Wireline Competition Bureau Statistical Reports that collects and publishes data from the forms that telecommunications services companies must file with the FCC.

tags: net neutrality

Found this DSL diss on the Time Warner Cable San Antonio website:

7 mbps is a nice bump in speed for the standard Roadrunner service I currently use. The results of a Roadrunner San Antonio Speedtest show 7 mbps to indeed be about the speed I’m getting downstream:

Now for the less good news. When the fine print clearly states up to 7 mbps one probably shouldn’t expect to get the top end of that range all the time on every site you visit. That’s fair. No real complaint there. Too many other factors beyond the service provider’s control can come into play.

But what kind of throughput can you expect to get from Roadrunner out on the open road where mileage may vary based on your driving conditions?

I can’t answer that definitively for you, but here’s what the results from a cross section of other broadband speed tests I ran using Roadrunner suggest I am getting:

From the About.com Speed Test:

–

From the CNET Bandwidth Meter:

–

From the Toast Performance Test:

–

From my own ftp test downloading a 24MB video file:

Speed got as high as 4.7+ mbps then hovered in the 4 - 4.5 range from there.

–

Those test results, though short of the 7 mbps mark, I thought were actually pretty decent. But with test results like this suggesting that I’m having a tough time getting the full 7 mbps out in the world, I wonder when it makes sense to upgrade to Roadrunner Premium, which now boasts up to 10 mbps downstream?

Can the independent Content Developer who is not large enough to ink a deal with one of the major wireless carriers still find a way to easily distribute on demand audio/video content to mobile devices?

I wasn’t sure of the answer to this myself so I’ve been visiting several of the wireless carriers’ retail outlets in the San Antonio area to try out an Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application as a vehicle for delivering audio video content to the current generation of mobile devices.

It’s worth mentioning again that this is a distribution method for the content owner that is not one of the major networks like ESPN Mobile, HBO Mobile on MediaNet etc… Those companies have the resources, scale and relationships in place to form agreements with the wireless carriers that give them placement on the mobile device deck (main menu). Once you get placement on the mobile phone’s deck, a lot of these problems get solved.

This research is more about what can the small to medium sized independent content developer, like a local traditional broadcaster for instance, do today to leverage their audio or video content onto this new distribution platform without one of those negotiated agreements from a wireless carrier in hand.

In short — can you go guerilla with audio video content distribution on the mobile platform? My research so far suggests that things aren’t perfect yet, but there appears to be enough of a critical mass in place to give a qualified yes.

You can deliver your content to their cellphone.

First, let’s go over the test itself. I visited retail outlets for T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and Cingular. When I got there I told a rep or manager that I was doing some research on sending audio and video content to mobile devices and wanted to check out how some of their new devices handled it.

All the places I visited were extremely helpful and some of the reps really knew their product well. Some reps didn’t, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many more did know their stuff, so chalk one up for the wireless carriers’ training programs.

The test consisted of using a stripped down version of the Open Source SMS Text Messaging Application running on my old pre-Lenovo Thinkpad to SMS three links to a device. The first link was to a mobile coupon. The second link was to a MP3 file. The third link was to a 3GP video file.

Now, about the results. I’m writing this part not only for the Content Developer to help get a better sense of the current state of the mobile content market, but also for the content consumer looking for a device that will let them get the most out of the mobile content market.

And in the spirit of that, let me start off by talking about Verizon Wireless. I praised Verizon in a recent post, but am disappointed in the way their mobile phones handled third party audio and video content during these tests. Verizon was the only carrier during my tests that when I SMS’d one of their phones a simple URL or link, the device could not launch the link — to any kind of site let alone a video clip. During these tests, the URL’s were pretty much dead in the phone’s text messaging application. On most Verizon phone devices (excluding smartphones and pda’s) I couldn’t even copy the URL and then manually paste it into the phone’s wap browser. Apparently this is on purpose and by design.

Does this kind of quasi Walled Garden approach run counter to Verizon’s recent agreement with Adobe to build the Flash Lite Player into most new Verizon devices?

The Verizon reps I talked to explained their approach as a feature put in place to protect the mobile consumer from dangerous content. There’s an argument to be made there that I can appreciate, but some might think another reason could be the ability to restrict content to only those content providers where there is a shared revenue stream in place for.

You can decide for yourself what the real motive is. And for the sake of this discussion let’s give them the benefit of the doubt that their customer experience is the driving force in the design decision. It’s a reasonable argument. Still, I suggest that any mobile content consumer who wants the most freedom in choosing and accessing the most audio and video mobile content carefully evaluate all their options before choosing their wireless provider.

Back to the results, starting with a quick word about mobile coupons. This area was primarily just a side test since mobile coupons is an area I’m also following. Still, I did get the chance to test a lot of devices and found that using SMS text messaging to deliver mobile coupons worked on just about every device. There’s a debate brewing whether mobile coupons are the next killer app or spam but the debate should be about done over whether there are enough devices in place now to make mobile coupons an app that is ready to go.

Now, for the MP3 and 3GP test results on some of the more popular devices:

The 2125 from Cingular handled the audio and video like a charm. The 2125 is one of my favorite Windows Smartphones that I tested.

The Treo 650 and Treo 700p on Sprint are probably my favorite of all the Smartphones. No matter what I threw at these devices, no matter how raw or unstructured the content, the Treo seemed to know what to do with it. Nice job Palm.

Blackberry 8700 on Cingular — for some reason the link was not hot when sent from the SMS App but links were hot when sent from other apps. Am researching what went on here. It likely could have been some kind of brain freeze on my part.

I found the Samsung t809 on T-Mobile to be a great phone and it handled all the multimedia files well. You have to click “save” from the SMS message to get the browser to open (many of the devices tested handled links in SMS messages this way), but it was intuitive enough and worked well.

Motorola SLVR on Cingular is another stellar performer and handled all the multimedia content well. Only downside is that the device I tested was still on the EDGE network at the time of the test and not UMTS. This is probably my favorite non clamshell new phone.

Motorola Q on Verizon was smart enough to climb over Verizon’s walled garden.

Samsung MM-A900 on Sprint successfully opened and played the audio and video files.

Samsung MM-A920 on Sprint may be my favorite of all the phones I tested. Ever since the Star Tac I’ve been a sucker for the clamshell design and this phone has a nice mix of features in that form factor. You can also tether it (along with the Treo’s and a few other Sprint devices) to use as a broadband modem with your laptop which is a nice option to have, but it will cost you extra each month.

Sanyo MM-7500 on Sprint handled the 3GP video file without a problem but did not know what to do with the MP3.

There were none in the store yet so I didn’t get a chance to do a hands on test of the new Sidekick 3 from T-Mobile but have seen reports in several blogs that the new Sidekick will play back NO video. If accurate, that is a disappointment. How can a device reportedly that sick, that sweet, not play video? Wow.

One note regarding my tests on the Sprint devices. I initially tried wrapping the MP3 and 3GP files into a GCD file, a traditional way for delivering wallpaper etc… to a Sprint device, but that process would break down after the device opened the GCD file correctly. When I sent the device simply a raw link to the MP3 or 3GP file, it worked well. Haven’t confirmed why that is, but having devices that know what to do with raw files without having to wrap them in GCD’s or other wrappers is kind of nice.

Of course this research is by no means exhaustive. My goal was simply to get a current assessment of the ability of independent third party content developers to distribute multimedia content to mobile devices. Overall, I like what I saw. If you’re thinking about distributing your audio or video content to mobile devices, I encourage you to go for it.

Thanks again to the carriers and their reps for all their friendly cooperation. Special thanks also to Murray, Jeremy, and Lee Ann for helping me with this research and to Scott and his team for your help and inspiration for the research.

tags; disruptive broadcasting; mobile devices;