During the 3GSM Congress, Ericsson announced the expansion of its hosting offering with the launch of content packages for mobile portals in five different categories: music, multiplayer gaming, video, multimedia subscriptions and downloads. These white-label portals, which are integrated into the Ericsson Content Delivery Platform, allow operators to deliver services under their own brands from Ericsson's content partners around the world.
One of these partners is music-video aggregator Video-C, which won the 2004 digital-music award for best use of broadband. Based in Camden, at the heart of the London music scene, Video-C aggregates video content from record labels around the world. The company has made a success of providing video clips on the web, and is now making its offering mobile with the help of Ericsson.
Video-C vice president Oisin Lunny says his team is currently working on ways in which it can enhance key releases, acts and promotions for Ericsson's white-label portals. "This is a fantastic end-to-end portal solution for second-tier operators and we're very excited by the possibilities it opens up for the use of new technologies and standards, such as interactive MPEG4 content," he says. "It's great that Ericsson can look after the streaming with its content-delivery platform, the billing with its Internet Payment eXchange, and so forth."
Another of Ericsson's content partners is FoneStarz Media Group, which has signed a joint global-marketing agreement with Ericsson. The company, which trades in the UK as Today UK Ltd., provides a mixture of mobile-content services, focusing on personalization, information and messaging. The brands it represents include Manchester United and Warner Brothers.
FoneStarz chief operating officer Grant Smuts says it makes perfect sense for the company to have teamed up with Ericsson. "By tapping into the Ericsson brand and distribution network, we have been able to rapidly reach operators at the right level around the world," he says. "Partnering with Ericsson allows us to combine our expertise in retail and mobile media with theirs in the delivery platforms and technology."
Glasgow-based cartoon-messaging specialist mixipix is also an Ericsson content partner. The company has signed a global distribution deal for the provision of content to Ericsson's download platform. The chief executive of mixipix, Lesley Keen, comments positively on the relationship. "Ericsson is a very civilized company that is very decent and fair to work with," she says. "So we look forward to being able to open this whole thing up by identifying opportunities in the market and responding to any kind of requests there might be for content going forward."
