Mobile phones will play a huge role in the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, particularly in SA where cellphone penetration is much greater than Internet use, says Colin Williamson, marketing manager for the event's official handset, Sony Ericsson.
According to research from World Wide Worx, cellphone users in SA stood at 34 million at the end of 2008, compared to 4.6 million Internet connections.
Diogo Peral, head of digital for the Soccer-Laduma Web site, says there are myriad opportunities for mobile service providers during the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, provided their offerings are well-planned.
“In this highly competitive market, those publishers who come up with the best content ideas will have their pick of advertisers for World Cup 2010.”
Peral says Soccer-Laduma magazine's mobi-site has three times more unique users than the publication's Web site; and is growing every month.
“Anyone who does not already have an effective, well-designed site and access to a ready market may well have left it too late to exploit 2010 opportunities, as deals are already being signed for the best 2010 properties,” adds Peral.
“People now want instant gratification when it comes to the sports they follow. They have their phones with them 24/7 and they want everything live and up-to-the-minute - breaking news, live scores, news flashes and commentary during games, and match reviews and photographs immediately afterwards.
“A few years ago, it was hard to find a WAP site that would work properly on every handset, now every publication either has one or is building one,” says Peral. “Handsets have also come a long way. The percentage of WAP-enabled phones is on the rise.”
Another thing that has changed, according to Peral, is the level of interactivity. “People want to give their opinion through forums and blogs. If there is an incident during a football game that has upset a user or made him happy, he wants to talk about it to fellow users straightaway.
“During games, our chat rooms and forums are full of people discussing what is going on in that game.”
People now want instant gratification when it comes to the sports they follow.
Diogo Peral, head of digital, Soccer-Laduma
According to Williamson, the mobile market is changing and adapting the whole time, with service providers trying to adapt to new capabilities and user demands.
“It's a fast-moving market and we have looked at what happened at the German World Cup and how we can adopt and incorporate elements and make them work better.”
Williamson says Sony Ericsson is in the preparation phases for several projects related to the sporting event next year. The company recently introduced the Extra Man Web site, aimed at providing a “one-stop site” for fans with football content and a football-focused search engine called WorldCupedia.
“It's all about the fans - there will obviously be attention surrounding the teams, but it's a lot more about the fans and them enjoying the World Cup experience,” says Williamson.
Changing channels
Fifa announced in April that the 2010 Soccer World Cup would be the first to be viewed in its entirety on mobile phones.
MultiChoice and MTN plan to release a mobile television service in SA in time for next year's World Cup, with networks already rolled out in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia, by Nokia Siemens Networks.
Stefan Schneiders, head of business development for mobile TV at Nokia Siemens Networks, cites research from Informa Telecoms & Media, which predicts there will be more than 335 million mobile TV users worldwide by 2012.
“We've seen it in Europe and we expect there will be a demand for mobile TV and Internet in SA for this event,” he adds.
The MultiChoice-MTN plan to introduce a digital video broadcast for handhelds (DVB-H) service could feature up to 16 channels and stream digital mobile television to MTN subscribers.
But MultiChoice is still waiting for the issuance of a mobile broadcasting licence from communications regulator, ICASA. Schneiders says once the licence is granted, the company expects to roll out services in SA soon.
According to Schneiders, uptake of mobile TV on the continent is based on the availability of handsets, and is likely to accelerate in 2010 because of the emergence of DVB-H. “Since 2006 there have been changes in devices; more and more are offering DVB-H.”
Given the diverse nature of SA's cellphone markets, Schneiders says varying pricing models will be offered. “There will be different classes of devices; some will be cheaper with less functionality, and other will cost more but have higher functionality, and offer more channels.”
He explains that the differences between traditional viewing and mobile TV are mostly content-driven. “When you're sitting in front of the TV at home, you have the same content being sent to viewers at the same time. On a mobile device, you have individual content with a high number of different channels the user can pick and choose.”
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