Point-of-Sale on a Mobile TV Channel

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007

Advertisers can not only market but make sales with mobile TV devices

Sofia Digital, together with Openbit, have released a solution which offers mobile TV channels immediate new business – a value-chain with which digital content, such as games and smart phone software can be sold via mobile TV channel. The content distributed is protected with a DRM solution and payment methods are already established world-wide.

At this point the emphasis is on content and software which can be used on the mobile phone used for watching the mobile TV channel. What makes the offering so appealing is that the mobile TV channel viewers can literally with a push of a button purchase the content advertised. This offers great value for the advertisers who want to make fast sales in the clearly defined target group were they sports fans, music enthusiasts or business people.

“What this really is all about is to make consumer’s lives easier” explains Mr. Jari Parkkisenniemi, Vice President, Mobile TV from Sofia Digital. “All of the components have been already there for some time now- mobile phone software vendors, DRM, payment technology, mobile TV – but this is the first time the whole value-chain can be implemented with one overall solution and it is now available.”

When digital content is being advertised on a mobile TV channel, the viewer can download the software on his/her mobile phone, if desired. The software can be made available for all mobile TV viewers via broadcast stream or it can be downloaded using cellular network. If the viewer wants to purchase the downloaded content all s/he needs to do is click the payment button. In addition to every major credit cards offered as a payment method, subscriber charging is possible in 70 mobile networks.

The DRM solution is developed by Openbit. “The readiness to use DRM protected software and the payment methods offered are already pre-installed in literally millions of mobile phones already on several platforms”, tells Mr. Arto Lehtonen, CEO of Openbit.

The mobile TV point-of-sale solution was released in IBC 2007 trade exhibition in Amsterdam. The solution is on display on Sofia Digital’s stand 2.101. IBC is held in Amsterdam RAI Congress Centre between 7th and 11th of September.

Links: Sofia Digital; Openbit