The popularity of shows like Big Brother could be the tip of the iceberg, as mobile infotainment becomes truly pervasive, while also enjoying significant local growth.
This was the message from industry experts at the mobile and wireless technology event, Hotspot 2004: The South African Mobile Economy, hosted this week in Bryanston by ITWeb and Blueprint Intelligence.
"The idea is to combine media to provide the consumer with a richer experience," said MultiChoice Interactive GM Richard Fyffe.
Mobile infotainment is widely spread across the local market. According to Fyffe, there are already 63 television services and 222 radio shows that fall into this category.
One example of an initiative allowing for increased user interactivity, said Fyffe, was the DSTV launch in July 2002 of a keyboard and modem that connects the DSTV decoder to phone lines.
SABC new media editor Judy Sandison told Hotspot 2004 that mobile technology is no longer an elitist area, and this will help infotainment grow in Africa.
Sandison said a number of successful value-added infotainment services have been introduced at the SABC. "Breaking news, sports news, and our interactive vote lines have all been successful. The academic results line has proved particularly popular, although it did take a while to pick up."
Entertainment is significantly more popular than news when it comes to user interactivity, so much so that Sandison referred to news as the 'little sister` of the infotainment industry. "The news is a very small niche market."
The important aspect is that infotainment is now financially viable, said Fyffe. "Interactive shows are revenue-creating; they are not just entertainment."
He added that premium-rated SMS played a significant role in this. "Since its introduction, it has become financially viable to offer SMS connectivity to shows. Before that, it was just a matter of offering interactivity to consumers."
Fyffe believes TV has an important role to play in the growth and success of infotainment. "TV is perfectly placed to drive mobile infotainment across the board."
One of the major factors that boosted the infotainment sector was the success of reality TV show Big Brother, said Fyffe. "The show generated more than 900 000 SMS2TV messages, as well as 100 000 calls to spylines - lines which allow callers access to any of the housemates` microphones."
According to Sandison, SMS and interactive voice response played a significant role in popularising interactive TV. The importance of interactive TV is not going unnoticed, as it is an increasingly important avenue for the SABC, she noted.
In order for infotainment to continue its successful run, Sandison believes there are certain challenges to overcome. "It is important that content be adapted to fit the medium. This was not done successfully in the past, and it resulted in certain failures. Also, it is important to promote synergy between the 'old` and 'new` media."
Looking at future trends in the infotainment market, Sandison believes there will be increased multimedia convergence, as well as free or low-cost Internet connections. Meanwhile, new mobile data services such as multimedia messaging service and unstructured supplementary service data will play a role in the future of infotainment, said Fyffe.
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