Rich media mobile advertising will reach $2.79 billion by 2012, with 87 percent of it running on mobile TV, according to Screen Digest’s Mobile Media Advertising report, released last week.
The report, which covered advertising in 25 countries, sees it selling best in Japan and South Korea, where mobile TV is free. In North American and European markets, most consumers pay their carriers for it, although broadcast opportunities like MediaFlo are free. When the content is free, there’s an 800 percent increase in viewers, said Julien Theys, a research analyst at Screen Digest.
The most popular forms of ad supported content are short-form clips from network TV shows. News and weather clips are also popular because “they generate repeated viewing and the daily information yields a lot of impressions,” Theys said. Sports content is also popular, but much of it is sold in premium packages, so it doesn’t generate much ad revenue.
The biggest barrier to selling mobile video advertising is the lack of mobile metrics. “If you don’t have the metrics, the audience is estimated within a general TV audience, so advertisers can’t consider it on a stand-alone basis,” he said. “There are no specific metrics for AT&T and Verizon.”
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More