One Million Watch Free Videos on Their Mobile Phones

The mobile phone network 3 UK have announced that more 33% of their 3 million UK customers customers have registered to use its free-to-access mobile video service. The new service allows mobile-phone users to watch entertainment, news and music clips on their own mobile phone. The content is free once the user has watched a short advertisement. The service is powered by Rhythm NewMedia

Rhythm NewMedia offers turnkey mobile advertising solutions, including video, games and banners. They sells and serves these video ads and its in-line brand awareness research system is used for measuring customer satisfaction and ad effectiveness. Top brands that have already used this service include Microsoft for mobile, Cisco, Intel, Unilever Lynx, Nivea, Ministry of Sound, Paramount Pictures, Entertainment Film and Coty and the Gwen Stefani fragrance.

The Marketing Director at 3 said, “Customers love the great content we offer and are happy to watch the short video ad before the video clip because the ad is targeted at them, making the experience all the more engaging. Customers who watch mobile videos are expressing high levels of satisfaction with the service.”

Research indicates that mobile phone users are willing to watch video on their phones, but they don’t want to pay for it. According to Jupiter Research 25% of consumers are interested in receiving video on their mobile phones but only 1% are willing to pay for it. Amazingly research conducted by Informa Telecoms & Media, predicts that mobile advertising will boom to more than $11.3bn by 2011, up from $871m in 2006.