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Fox Starts TV Production For Cell Phones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the auto-accidents-of-the-future dept.

prostoalex writes "Broadcasting television to the cell phones, which few people were actually interested in, is becoming a reality pretty fast, as Fox started making mopisodes (one-minute episodes targeted specifically for the mobile phone screen) to be broadcast on Vodafone and Verizon networks. The Fox announcement timed perfectly with Vodafone launching a broad variety of 3G services in Europe."

49 of 232 comments (clear)

  1. CNN Coverage by calibanDNS · · Score: 4, Informative

    CNN's coverage can be found here.

  2. Oh boy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Star Wars Narrow Screen Edition.

    1. Re:Oh boy! by whiteranger99x · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow! That Death Star sure blew up that dust speck Alderaan really bad! :P

      --
      Join the TWIT army now!
  3. WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    What an insanely stupid idea. One minute TV episodes for the cell phone. Can someone please point me to the place where they give jobs like this out, to come up with incredibly stupid ideas like this?

    Instead of spending the money on this, FOX might as well have just spent the money on sexual harassment training.

    1. Re:WTF by tuxter · · Score: 2

      And it's FOX, it's debateable if any of their full length programming is of any virtue either...

    2. Re:WTF by erick99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      People are nuts. They want the tiniest cell phone possible, and then they want full motion/realtime video on it as well as a huge amount of memory for an MP3 player, add some circuitry for GPS, and whatever else. Do people really want to watch tv on their phone? Maybe this trend has more to do with people never being home because they have to or choose to work insane hours and also run kids back and forth and try to do other things as well. We are a Type A society I suppose. If it's gotten so bad that watching tv on a cell phone seems like a good idea, well, then, it's gotten pretty bad.

      --
      http://www.busyweather.com/
    3. Re:WTF by MidnightBrewer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Live in a country where your daily commute is an hour-and-a-half train ride one way, and perhaps you'll begin to see the justification.

      --
      "Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
    4. Re:WTF by meme_police · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why would I do that? I walk to work in 15 minutes. I'd rather live close to work in a 100 sq ft apartment shared with 12 other people than take 1 1/2 hour train ride.

      --

      The meme police, They live inside of my head

    5. Re:WTF by corian · · Score: 2, Funny

      Live in a country where your daily commute is an hour-and-a-half train ride one way, and perhaps you'll begin to see the justification.

      A one-minute TV program isn't going to take that much of a bite out of your one-and-a-half hour comute, though...

    6. Re:WTF by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 2, Funny

      Can someone please point me to the place where they give jobs like this out, to come up with incredibly stupid ideas like this?

      The idea was pretty obvious after looking at the attention span of most cellphone users.

    7. Re:WTF by sabNetwork · · Score: 2, Funny

      WELCOME TO FOX NEWS BRIEFS
      America's Most Trusted Name in Cell Phone News

      It's time for our 60-second summary!
      beep beep budeep beep beep

      This just in-- Bush approval ratings are up!
      Shares of Halliburton may rise in the near future!
      Terrorists want to kill you-- stay home today!
      Baby-killing doctors arrested in San Francisco!
      Michael Moore needs to shut up!
      John Kerry is French!

      For more information on these breaking news stories, visit www.foxnews.com.

      --

    8. Re:WTF by tho+1234 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need"

      -fight club

  4. 1minute episodes ? commericals by sPaKr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I thought the correct term for a one minute episode was commercial. I cant belive people are going to pay for that.

    1. Re:1minute episodes ? commericals by cyfer2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

      maybe fox just made a big investment in battery industry.

      --
      There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
    2. Re: 1minute episodes ? commericals by Ewan · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've got a 3G phone from 3 and I did get video spammed on it a few times from the provider advertising things, after the 3rd time i phoned them up and complained, not received one since. I'll be leaving them in january when my contract finishes anyway, they're shockingly bad.

      Ewan

  5. "Mopisode" by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Mopisode"? I thought a one-minute dramatic episode was called a "trailer".

    1. Re:"Mopisode" by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, a trailer is a preview for an upcoming movie. It is called a trailer because it used to trail the movies. Then the marketing guys came in and said, "Hey, more people will watch these movie ads if we stick them at the FRONT of the movie!"

      However, I do believe mopisode is stupid sounding and probably/hopefully won't catch on.

      --
      Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
    2. Re:"Mopisode" by skybrian · · Score: 2

      I believe the correct term is "blipvert".

  6. Mobile hazard by Lancaibheal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great.

    Now I have to watch out for morons watching TV on their mobile phones while they drive their souped-up 4WDs in rush hour traffic.

    Thanks, Fox!

    1. Re:Mobile hazard by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You'd be a tad more credible if you felt like putting your name to your post.

      As it happens, I agree with you. Cyclists and major roads/highways/freeways do not mix. The difference is that instead of saying "so cyclists should get off the road" I say "I'm paying for this, and can expect decent transport infrastructure too." When roads are upgraded, it's not hard to add a bike path or a cycle lane or two, nor does it take much space. In general, I strongly prefer to stick to cycleways anyway, and in Perth (Western Australia) that's usually a viable option.

      On minor roads, however - a cyclist has as much right to use the road as anybody else. It is entirely reasonable to expect not to be wiped out by morons just because they can't be bothered looking where they're going. Paying attention isn't hard. When it comes to the speed issue, at worst people have to slow down for 30s until there's a decent place to pass, and only because that bit of road is too stupidly cramped. Deal with it. Seriously.

      As for the insults and generalisations, my thoughts about giant-truck driving redneck hicks are similar - but I'm not making the assumption that you are one like you've made unreasonable assumptions about me (despite the strong temptation to do so).

      I must note, also, that I've met more than a few winy idiots myself. Some have been cyclists - and really, painfully bitchy about it. The sort of people who will tell someone who lives 30km from their work in a country that hits 40C in summer that they don't need a car. The temptation to beat them to death is strong. A similar temptation exists for intolerant morons who assume all cyclists are like that and who think they're the only ones whose needs matter.

    2. Re:Mobile hazard by Craig+Ringer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You make some interesting points, but I can't say I entirely agree. If somebody cannot stop in time to avoid hitting something doing 1/2 the normal speed, they can't stop in time to avoid hitting a broken down car or a stupid child, either. That's called reckless driving, and it tends to land you in a small bare room for a long stay.

      As for design issues - agreed. I strongly prefer to use cycleways or cycle lanes, and where that's not possible nice wide roads. Sometimes that's not possible, and it's unavoidable to use a road poorly suited to cycling. It is a driver's responsibility to drive safely, and it is reasonable to expect that they do so, much as it's reasonable to expect cyclists to stay out of the way or off the roads where possible and to be considerate of drivers.

      As for riding in the middle of the lane - it's the right thing to do when you know there is not enough room for somebody to pass safely but suspect they might try anyway. The road rules permit it, and while it's generally impolite it's necessary on poorly designed roads. I prefer to avoid such roads instead, but if it's a choice between being wiped out by a moron or forcing the moron to (*gasp*) slow down for a minute, I'll force them to slow down.

      The other design issue is that such short-sighted design decisions were made in the first place. Here, even now they're narrowing the roads and adding blocked parking on the sides of the roads, making it a frightening gauntlet to ride between traffic and parked cars with people who may open doors without warning. These roads USED TO BE SAFE. It is beyond me why in a world of high fuel costs, pollution problems, national weight and fitness problems, etc city councils continue to design infrastructure that is actively hostile to cyclists.

  7. One minute episodes? by wrinkledshirt · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, at least they're making disinformation more efficient.

    [ducks and covers]

    --

    --------
    Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...

  8. Reality? by nerd256 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Broadcasting television to the cell phones, which few people were actually interested in, is becoming a reality pretty fast"

    TV Phone has two factors to become a big hit
    (1) The technology has to be available
    (2) People have to shell out the money for it

    The technology is available, which, granted, is a large step and testimony to technological projects. However, people must buy/subscribe this technology which no doubt will be very expensive. I for one would not throw a pretty penny at something I could get by turning on my public telivision. Take for example, the small tvs that are sold and the small toys which play pre-recorded clips off of cartriges. Despite their availability, I haven't yet seen their overwhelming presence in society. Besides, it is one thing to listen to a phone, or casually text-message. But to watch telivision on it is getting a bit extreme.

    In addition, the technology still has a small way do go - it has to be affordable and compliant across many platforms.

    For me, a decent RSS reader would be perfect. Slashdot is a far better resource than Fox.

  9. 1 minute episodes based on 24? by arbi · · Score: 2, Funny

    They could call it 1440

  10. What New Hell is This? by rueger · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh great now I can enjoy idiots on cel phones "sharing" fine Fox programming while I'm trying to enjoy my dinner in a restaurant.

    As if their pointless yattering conversations weren't enough....

    --
    Three Squirrels
  11. Why is it Different in the US? by Oyume · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder why Vodafones in the US aren't like the ones here in Japan -- The newer phones receive regular broadcast TV, no fees or special equipment required. On your Vodafone you can watch anything that's not on cable TV. Pretty nice. But I just don't get the whole "download and pay" gambit in the WEST...

    *shrug*

    1. Re:Why is it Different in the US? by cgenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Roll-out of cellular products in the US is terribly, terribly slow. For one, uptake in the US is slow, with many people holding on to their phones until they break. For another, the US market is quite large but needs to be supported as a cohesive whole... As such if Verizon wants to try something out, they will wait until success is reasonably assured then do a full nationwide roll out. Japan is a smaller, less-risky market which has traditionally used cell phones in roles that in the west would have been filled by computers... as computer uptake was somewhat slower over there and internet access was more spotty.

      Plus the carriers out here get to say what their customers use as phones, not vice-versa. Up until recently phones had to be flashed to a specific network provider and a specific user... the idea of buying a general purpose cell phone and finding a provider later is laughable here, despite being a perfectly functional model in Europe.

      We expect the carrier to subsidise the cost of the phones, and then are shocked that we can't get any phone that has features they don't want us to have. Sigh. I'd say vote with your dollars, but we really don't have any choice here.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    2. Re:Why is it Different in the US? by BlastM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      _Not a troll_ just an observation.

      I have never been to Japan, but from what I gather Japanese society is generally tech-profficient and consumers make educated decisions when buying electronics.

      Apart from us geeks who are skeptical of big business at the best of times and paranoid at other times, western society will consume what the television tells it to, and is short-sighted enough not to realise that micro-payments add up quickly.

      I'm an Australian, and I can see this happening right now. SMS and MMS has become a huge fad, as have mobile phones in general. Many young people now face debt problems after running up phone bills in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars.

      Broadband internet service is well below basic for a developed nation, but that's mostly attributed to the reelection of the conservative federal government that has sold half of the telecommunications utility that owns all the copper phone infrastructure and DSLAMs and most of the outgoing internet pipes.

      The population just isn't tech-savvy enough to force the market to be competitive, and as a result we are all fucked over, although only the geeks (and the farmers in the outback who can barely make phone calls) can see it.

    3. Re:Why is it Different in the US? by Kintanon · · Score: 2, Informative

      I do customer service for Verizon Wireless. People in the US expect their phone provider to give them a new phone every 8 months or so for free. They expect this because they pay a monthly fee for their service. Somehow they think that the service doesn't cost Verizon anything to provide them, so their 39.99 a month is pure profit. We make about 1$ per month on each customer in profit. When customers go over their minutes we make more. But if every 8 months we give a phone to that customer that cost us 100$ to get from the manufacturer (And retails for 250) all of a sudden we've paid that customer to use our service. I just want to know why these customers feel like they are entitled to free stuff just because they paid their bill on time? Do cellphone customers in Europe and Japan do that?

      Kintanon

      --
      Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
    4. Re:Why is it Different in the US? by cgenman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I did a stint in customer service. Tough job. It's impossible to please both the customers and the company you work for.

      That having been said, the cell phone industry in the US has a lot to answer for. The fact of the matter is that everyone has been hit with at least 1 100 dollar phone bill in their lives, if not routinely. And while getting hit with that once a year means the company makes 8 dollars more per month for that subscriber, the customer suddenly feels like they're owed.

      What other industry forces you to estimate the amount of something you are going to use, pay for services that may or may not be rendered, and make you pay through the nose if you guess low? This isn't a business relationship, this is The Price is Right. Do you think you will or will not roam? Will you be making any long distance calls? Do you think you will roam off our network in your home calling area? Planning on recieving any text messages? Are you sure you're only going to use 300 minutes with the holidays coming up? *DING!* The player guessed wrong. The phone company wins!

      I got hit with a 100 dollar bill one month because I switched to "unlimited nationwide coverage" at a 15 dollar a month premium, traveled out to California, and mysteriously dropped off of AT&T's network. If I had paid an additional additional 10 dollars that month I would have had "unlimited nationwide coverage with off-network roaming" and recieved the same service from the same people for 90% less. They charged me 10 times the amount for the same service. That's 90 bucks they owe me. My girlfriend has to ask people to call her house long distance, because while her cellular phone company's landline long distance is only about 15 cents per minute (a high total these days, I might add), cellphone long distance is 60 cents per minute no matter which way the call is going. So if I pay 15 cents to get a call to the switching station of her cell phone company, and she pays a monthly fee to get it from the switch to her cell phone, she still has to pay a stupidly high fee for the priviledge of receiving the call.

      If cell phone service were like power, you would pay X cents per minute. Maybe there would be variables like X cents per minute local, or X cents per minute off-prime, but they would be linear variables. None of this exploding-bill-for-the-same-service BS.

      I buy a gallon of milk. It costs me 2 dollars. I buy another gallon of milk. It costs me 2 more dollars. I buy 400 minutes of talk time. It costs me 40 dollars. I buy another 400 minutes of talk time. It costs me 240 more dollars. Where else would we put up with this?

      If the cellular companies didn't try to screw their users, maybe their users wouldn't try to get everything they can out of them.

      Again, I know that isn't you. But you have to realize that the system you work for is not working for its users. BTW, cry not a tear for Verizon Wireless, it's making a healthy 10% return on capital. I'm convinced wireless companies could be making a lot more than that with a simple, fair pay-as-you-go non-prepaid no expiring minutes bullshit.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
  12. Before they do that... by infernalC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    By gosh, I want Verizon to get rid of those fast-busy signals around rush hour and all those dead spots on my way to work. Cell service just plain sucks for a lot of us out here.

    1. Re:Before they do that... by Kintanon · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you live in the New York Metro area then rush hour is never going to get better. We've saturated the area with cell towers, but each tower can only carry so many calls. When all of you people get on the phone at once when you get off work there just isn't enough infrastructure to carry the calls. The deadspots in the cities are usually caused by dense buildings like parking garages between you and the cell tower. Older skyscrapers will also kill the signal.

      Kintanon

      --
      Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
  13. Really common here in Korea by Jack+Porter · · Score: 3, Informative

    The 3G phones here can do streaming video (including cable TV) and it's really common to see my coworkers watching the latest movie trailer on their phones.

    You pay per packet, and for content for some 'premium' stuff like music videos, and it's a relatively closed system so the telco and the content providers love it.

  14. Great by Ambient_Developer · · Score: 2, Funny

    So now fox can run up my cell phone bandwidth bill, excellent!

  15. I don't get it by thpr · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I MIGHT (stress might) pay for a quick snippet of the end of the World Cup, Stanley Cup final, or World Series if I happened to be out and not able to actually see the same live. However, I can't see buying anything specifically for a cell phone screen. Too small, drains my battery, I'm not out wandering or driving somewhere in order to watch TV.

    Not to mention that on a price per bit basis this will be something like 100,000x as expensive as cable television.

    Of course, I think paying for ringtones is a dumb idea, too; but that's a multi-billion dollar industry!

  16. cool east/west contrast by wintermute1000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I went to a presentation a month or so ago on how technology is used in not-America (it baffles the best of us!) and the speaker spent some time on a service in China where by one could subscribe to a serialized novella on the cell phone; I believe the installments were delivered during peak commute hours, and some huge percentage of the population of China signed up. Now, obviously, that's not as easy to do in English because we use letters, so we can't fit as much story on a tiny screen. I was wondering whether a development like this would come up so that we in the States, too, can get fictional content on our phones.

    I suppose the answer is yes, then. Cool...I'd still rather read than watch a commercial-length piece of film on a teeny screen, though.

  17. Aye Carumba by FerretFrottage · · Score: 2, Funny

    3G is not toon porn
    3G is not toon porn
    3G is not toon porn

    --
    "Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
  18. Other places to watch trailers on a phone by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    The distraction of driving while using a cell phone has already drawn the legal ire of a number of states and localities, and rightly so. Watching a FOX "mopisode" could be deadly.

    Who's to say a driver would be watching such programs? Ever heard of carpooling or public transportation (bus, train, etc), the same places Nintendo expects grown-ups to touch their DS systems?

  19. so much greed... by terrymaster69 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is just silly. (actually just greedy) Vodafone already sells phones that have TV tuners built into them - the image is adjusted to fit the resolution of the screen. You can buy them here in Japan, I presume other countries as well. To have Fox create something for this "new 3G service" just means a new revenue stream. Just build the tuner into the phone, let people pick up the TV they want. (TV sucks the world over though, just seems like a waste of precious battery time)

  20. Uggh by BHearsum · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I need not post my bitching for the fourth time, but I'm still so sick of these cellphones with all this crap on it. I think it's because people want everything, but only want to pay for one device. I don't know why some people don't worry about quality at all. I don't watch TV much, but I certainly don't want to watch it on a 1'' screen.

    It's a Walmart civilization these days. People are told they want the absolute cheapest thing out there, nevermind quality. What is the point in paying for something that only half-works? People buy cellphones that have horrible reception and sound quality -- makes it quite useless as a phone. I work as a computer service technician; we get people in on a daily basis demanding to know why their shit broke. HMM! I don't know. PCchips motherboard, generic ram, FORSA video card. Fujitsu hard drive...Liteon optical. I don't understand these people. They want the world, but they don't want to pay. I used to buy cheap crap. THEN IT BROKE. Then I realized that there is a bit of truth to 'you get what you pay for', at least, for tangible things. After buying a few cheap electronics I decided NO MORE. I don't buy something to have it stop working in a few months.

    And in case anyone is wondering, I finally found a phone that works so god damned well as phone. Motorola i90c. I'm using it on the Mike network (ie. iDen) and it's amazing. I get full signal everywhere I've been so far, in places where I got no signal with my Nokia piece of crap.

    1. Re:Uggh by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

      " I think it's because people want everything, but only want to pay for one device. "

      Have you ever tried carrying around an MP3 player, Game Boy, digital camera, PDA, and Sidekick all at once?

      "I don't watch TV much, but I certainly don't want to watch it on a 1'' screen."

      Good for you. Now consider other people's desires for a moment. A phone, because of it's 'phoney' nature, is something one carries around at all times. Since that phone already does the standard phone stuff, why not have it pull double duty as a entertainment device? Why not be able to get movie show times on it? Why not download a 1 minute TV ep? Why not take pictures of your 3 year old nephew being funny at a restaraunt that you so thoughtlessly forgot to bring your $500 digital camera to?

      I don't think the problem is that the rest of the world is defective, I think you're just not making the most of your phone. Don't want extras? Fine. Go be happy. However, consider that the rest of us aren't just stupid sheep. I used to have a phone that went a week without charging. Whoopy, I made a few calls on it and .. uh.. I didn't have to plug it into the wall as often. Ok. Now I've got a phone, it's smaller which is easier on the pocket, and yeah it lasts only 3 days on a charge. Did I trade down? Uh, no. I have some classic photos of my nephew I wouldn't normally have gotten. Heck, I've even got a hilarious video of my dog harassing my cat. During waits in line I keep up on the news. I've got a few silly games that keep me entertained on the john. (yeah yeah, giggle giggle, snort snort.) I have occasional text message chats with a friend who's bored at work. I'd keep going, but hopefully my point is starting to come into focus: Yeah, my phone isn't bullet proof, but it's a lot more useful to me now than the 'better' phone I had a few years ago. I don't care about Quality? Perhaps not. I care about value. Oh, did I mention that this phone was half the cost of the 'better' phone that lasted a week on a single charge?

      Before I finish my post here, part of my rant here wasn't directed at you. If you take personal offense, I apologize. I'm just sick of "nerds" here suddenly going all minimalist when cool things are developed. I thought we were supposed to embrace technology here. I have.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  21. technology that nobody asked for by rtphokie · · Score: 2, Insightful

    this one tops the list. Just because it's possible doesn't mean it needs to be done.

  22. One minute equals... by DoktorSeven · · Score: 3, Funny

    45 seconds of commercials, 5 seconds of the FOX logo ("You're watching FOX Fone!"), and 10 seconds of actual content.

    I'll pass, thanks.

    --
    This is a sig. Deal with it.
  23. So now... by Phidoux · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... I can talk and watch at the same time. I always knew that having an eye in my ear would come in handy one day.

    --
    Free Firefox news reader.
  24. Wow by Yaa+101 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Neocon propaganda in cellphone format, isn't the world wonderfull?

  25. Missing The Point by johnnywheeze · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is a blatant plug, but a plug with a point...

    Video over mobile phone networks is actually pretty exciting, but just dumping video content onto 3G networks lacks vision and creativity.

    The idea is to make programming that takes advantage of the MOBILE part of the equation. Focusing on things you can ONLY do with a mobile video platform.

    Our first project is a mobile phone travel show. The killer idea is that the phone, knowing roughly where you are in a city, will stream a video to you on demand, about attractions near to where you actually are at that moment.

    A video guide book, carried on your phone, that both knows where you are, and what's there to see.

    Some Clips from Bangkok here: http://www.studiolanna.org/movies.htm

    It's this combination of two technologies (mobile phones and video) that makes 3G into the next big thing, if it's taken advantage of, and not used just as a really tiny screen to watch movie trailers, and commercials.

  26. Fox Ringtone by wayward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey, if I got a polyphonic cell phone, do you suppose I could get a ringtone with Bill O'Reilly talking about his sexual fantasies?

  27. The "Wow, Cool!" factor is dead by nysus · · Score: 2, Informative

    The market for consumer products that bank on the cool factor to sell goods and services is quickly shrinking. When every product is cool, nothing's cool anymore. I'm officially getting off the gizmo treadmill. Who wants to keep shelling out $300 every few months for some super-wham-o-dyne gadget that's going to be superseded by another super-super-wham-o-dyne gadget in two months?

    Maybe I'm just getting old. How do you younger kids feel? You bored by these things, too?

    --

    ---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.

  28. Farenheit 451 by heletek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone remember the part on the subway? Why do people need to be constantly entertained? In the words of George Carlin, Dosn't anybody just sit and think anymore?