Earlier today, I wrote about the partnership between MoviTV and Yahoo! to sell a variety of advertising for MobiTV's mobile television platform, now with 2 million subscribers.
At the end of the post, I mentioned a comment from Rick Mathieson on Branding Unbound, who said that, "with MobiTV's new ad capabilities, it makes for a compelling mobile advertising partner for just about anyone looking for compelling ways to provide contextually relevant, interactive advertising to today's most tech-savvy consumers."
As I noted in the earlier post, Mathieson was referring to a deal between MobiTV and NBC Universal to launch a significant amount of NBCU content as on-demand for mobile users.
The announcement for the service was made earlier this month, when Mathieson wrote, "Now this is what mobile television should be - over the air and on demand."
These VOD mobile offerings include NBC shows like Heroes, The Office, and Friday Night Lights, as well as USA's Monk, Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica, and Telemundo telenovelas.
The services will include five channels, supported by advertising, featuring short content from USA, Sci Fi, Bravo, Telemundo, and mun2.
NBC will also be offering a simultaneous linear feed of is CNBC programming online through MobiTV's online television service.
The press release touts the deal as the "first-ever wireless deal for full-length primetime on demand programming." According to the press release, "Consumers will be able to access full episodes of select NBCU primetime shows starting at $1.99 for a 24-hour viewing period, although these rates are subject to change by participating wireless carriers."
Daisy Whitney with TelevisionWeek writes about the company's simultaneous plans for MediaFLO through Verizon, for which the company will offer NBC News2Go, featuring full-length versions of Nightly News with Brian Williams and Today, programming from CNBS and MSNBC, and the NBC2Go channel, featuring both primetime and late night NBC content.
This follows the Fox/NBC Universal plans for an online video distribution site which I wrote about last week. I wrote, "What the NBC Universal/Fox video site sounds more like is a version of cross-platform distribution, an online venue to watch video. I think that's a great idea, but it doesn't provide direct opposition for YouTube if it's primarily going to be ad-supported full-length video content."
