MSNBC Announces Ad-Supported News Service for Mobile Phones

7:00 am on April 6, 2006 | Category: Mobile Devices, Web Services

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Popular online news portal, MSNBC.com, announced yesterday that it will be testing a special ad-supported news offering for cell phones, in an effort to increase penetration among wireless internet users.

As handsets become more advanced and carriers increasingly offer features like wireless web browsing, and music and video downloads, many television and media companies are keeping an eye on mobile phones as a new gateway to reach viewers and rack up advertising dollars.

MSNBC.com, a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal News, is one of the first major US media companies to propose an ad-supported combination of mobile video and internet news. Photos and video clips from popular NBC shows will be offered alongside slideshows and text-based news articles from MSNBC.com. The service will be paid for by short ads displayed during use.

“The whole point of bringing multimedia and photos is to attract the mainstream viewer,” said MSNBC marketing executive, Catherine Captain. “We didn’t want to add one more charge … We think the mainstream public will move to an ad supported model.”

Currently, only about 1% of MSNBC’s 25 million monthly visitors view the site from cell phone browsers, but the company hopes that the new service will change that. Customers who are already used to web-based ads probably wouldn’t have a problem with seeing the same ads on their phones, especially if it means that the service remains free.

In order to achieve this dream, however, MSNBC will need to take on the difficult task of negotiating with carriers, including Sprint Nextel and Verizon, at this weeks CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas.

“The real challenge here is rationalizing the business models of MSNBC and carrier A, B and C who all have different ideas about how to charge for accessing this type of service,” commented Yankee Group analyst, John Jackson.

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    Edited by Jeremy Maddock