EXPORT NAVIGATOR PROJECT
The Export Navigator Project
Exploring channels to market for portable Australian content
- Exporting Mobile Content - A Producer’s Guide [Download]
Introduction
The Mobile Content Export Navigator Project is a research initiative established to assist Australian companies developing portable content for distribution to mobile phones and other handheld media devices. It aims to investigate various channels to market in a range of countries by actively distributing a variety of quality content from Australian producers and informing the industry of the lessons learnt in the process. All proceeds from export sales achieved under this research initiative are wholly returned to the owners/creators of the content.
The very small screen comes of age
The emergence of mobile networks as a new medium for the delivery of creative and interactive content represents the beginning of a new age of personal entertainment. Australian content producers have the capacity to provide compelling content into the global market for this emerging opportunity. The increasing focus by mobile operators on making video services available and the anticipated launch of broadcast mobile television services (broadcasting of digital video signals to handheld devices) are beginning to offer new channels for the delivery of content suited to the very small screen.A variety of alternative channels are also emerging with Apple’s App Store breaking records for the sale of applications and content and now Google, Nokia and RIM are committing to similar strategies for content distribution.
The opportunity to play
As competing business models for the distribution of mobile content are still being established, there has been considerable uncertainty over which approaches will be most successful. Australian companies have the opportunity to establish themselves as premium providers of compelling content to international markets. To do this successfully, we need to understand from direct experience what distribution mechanisms are going to be sustainable and yield the best results. Sales of ringtones and mobile wallpapers are now declining in many advanced markets. Markets for mobile games are reaching maturity in many countries. While there have been barriers to the uptake of richer mobile content in the form of video and animation, these barriers are progressively being addressed. The advent of 3G services and better pricing models for carriage are promoting real growth of rich media content in advanced markets.
What we need to know … to succeed
The Export Navigator Project is aiming to create an informed community of content creators able to make better decisions regarding the development and distribution of mobile content for export markets.
Commencing in March 2006, the program involved the investigation of models for the successful distribution of Australian mobile content in international markets. This research has informed the development of ‘Exporting Mobile Content - A Producers’ Guide’ for the benefit of the small to medium sized enterprises that form the majority of the mobile digital content creation industry in Australia.
As competing business models for the distribution of mobile content are still being established, there has been considerable uncertainty over which distribution channels and which types of exported content will be the most successful in the future. The Export Navigator project sought to answer some of these questions.
AusIndustry support
The partners in this project are grateful to AusIndustry - which provided grant support to cover 50% of the costs of the project under its Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP). The project would not have been possible without this support.