The Weather Channel Mobile, which added video forecasts to its mobile site, is offering a video advertising sponsorship package that includes a five second pre-roll that plays while the content is loading and a 15 second post-roll.
The package also includes a banner on the video index page.
The Weather Channel announced the new ad opportunity on March 12 as part of its 2008 upfront plans. It’s the first time it has offered a mobile video ad opportunity, according to Rebecca Barnett, The Weather Channel’s mobile ad sales director.
“We’ve used mobile web banners and links to jump pages or WAP sites, but this is the first time we’ve offered mobile video,” she said.
The advertising wraps around local forecast information that is one-and-a-half minutes long.
Barnett said The Weather Channel is selling the mobile video advertising on a sponsorship basis. “Until we get some scale behind it, it’s a sponsorship package, so one advertiser owns all the plays.” She said monthly packages are being sold.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More