By Ken Liebeskind

SEATTLE --

Vmbc.tv, the video business unit of Versaly Entertainment/Seattle, a producer of mobile TV content, is trying to get its Fast Lane channel to as many phones as possible, so it reached agreement with two “off-deck” mobile platforms, Microsoft Smartphones and Nokia Video Center, last week. Owners of those phones use the HandiTV Plus application to download the channel for free viewing of Fast Lane.
    Vmbc.tv launched Fast Lane, which provides action sports, comedy and related content for males 18-34 early this year on Sprint TV, but Matthew Feldman, Versaly’s president/CEO, said the off-deck platforms provide better opportunities to insert advertising into the content. “Carriers are very conservative with advertising, they’re taking small baby steps,” he said. “They’re not sure how their subscribers will react, but the off-decks are looking for any way to monetize it.” He added that the off-decks are “innovators who understand that consumers are used to watching commercials on TV and the Net so it would be okay on a mobile network as long as the video is free.”
    As content plays on Fast Lane, Vmbc.tv inserts advertising in three different ways: interstitials, graphic overlays and branded content. Interstitials are ads that play during content, like TV ads. “We prefer 15 second interstitials, we don’t use pre-rolls,” Feldman said. “We use mid-rolls that play after 20 to 45 seconds of content plays.” Graphic overlays are ads that float with the content or run underneath it like tickers. They can be videos or text ads, he said. Branded content is programming made on behalf of products, including Toyota’s FJ Cruiser and the Mini Cooper.
    Versaly sells advertising and works with third party ad sales groups, including Starcom MediaVest, Feldman said.
    After Fast Deck was launched, content providers often sold their own advertising which offset content costs and enabled Versaly to run the ads on Sprint phones, “because Versaly wasn’t actively selling ad content,” Feldman said. Today, content providers can sell ads and get a commission or Versaly and its media buying partners can sell them.
    The addition of the off-deck platforms will boost ad sales because they will increase the audience. “It’s all about the numbers,” he said. “A lot of advertisers are looking at 100,000 views a month to make them feel it’s worthwhile. We’re about 350,000 a month with Sprint. If we grow it to 500,000 or 600,000 a month it will be that much more valuable to advertisers.”
    Like Sprint, the off-decks provide a national audience, meaning the additional numbers will be attractive to national advertisers. Jeep, Dodge and Castrol are the top advertisers now, Feldman said.

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