Call for Improved Standards in Mobile Content Sales Reporting
The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has announced a content sales reporting initiative and launched a consultation document to help establish a set of best practices for mobile content reporting. The MEF says that the range of reporting formats is currently both costly and inefficient, resulting in lost opportunities for revenue across the mobile content industry. Accurate and consistent reporting will benefit all operators and content providers, allowing them to know exactly who is using what content. With this intelligence, it will be significantly easier to target consumers, respond effectively to demand, and accurately focus investment in new content.
The new initiative is global and will cover all types of mobile content including ringtones, full-track music, images, video clips and streams, mobile TV, subscriptions to content, premium SMS, and games. The initiative has the support of all major music labels which are part of the Digital Data Exchange, LLC, (DDEX) a body developing technical standards for data exchange along the digital content value chain including the mobile sector.
"Industry support for these best practices will lead to a highly accurate and clear picture of how content is delivered and used. Digital retailers currently have no metric by which to benchmark their activities in reporting. The results is an inability to respond to consumer demand, lack of trust, lost revenues and a reduced investment in content due to lack of information. In the long run, this initiative will help content makers and operators address and resolve these serious issues." said Jason Wells, Senior Vice President, Mobile Entertainment at Sony Pictures Television International.
Patrick Parodi, Global Chair of MEF, commented, "The mobile entertainment industry is now estimated to generate $25 billion annually. To take the industry to the next level globally, it is vital that operators, aggregators and media rights holders work with MEF to accurately and consistently report on the uses and usage of this growing media. Using data effectively across the value chain will provide a full picture of the market and help ensure its future growth."
Posted to the site on 23rd October 2007
