Shocker — People Won't Watch Crap Just Because It's On A Phone
Fox and Vodafone got a lot of press a year ago when they announced one-minute “mobisodes” related to the show 24 would be available to the carrier’s 3G customers. There was plenty of reason to be skeptical about the format, and now, 12 months on, MocoNews found buried in a story about Tonight Show clips being available on Sprint’s new mobile TV service the tidbit that Fox has pulled the plug on the 24 spinoff. The reason? Viewers wanted to see the stars of the original show, not new characters in a tangentially related story that was little more than an ad for the broadcast show. Mobile video is at the point where service providers are throwing anything they can at the medium, and operators are taking as much as they can get (even though the jury’s still out on the whole concept in general). Consumers, though, want quality, and just because something’s on a mobile phone doesn’t mean they’ll settle for less.
