The use of SMS to make broadcasting more interactive is growing, generating millions in revenue, say industry players.
South Africans are fast adopting premium SMS to interact with TV and radio programmes, as well as to enter competitions. At a rate of up to R30 per SMS, the new trend is generating millions for those involved.
Richard Fyffe, GM, Interactive at MultiChoice, said at the recent Highway Africa conference that there had been "explosive growth" in the use of telephony in interactive TV (iTV) throughout Africa. He said the "168-characters of fame" concept, in which a viewer could post a message to TV by simply sending an SMS, was booming.
Recent surveys, he noted, showed SMS interactivity could boost TV show ratings by up to 20%. SA is in line with the rest of the world in its SMS adoption, Fyffe said. Illustrating the global growth is the fact that over 45 billion SMSs were sent globally per month this year, compared with 25 billion a month last year.
Turning text into money
While few operators are prepared to say exactly what they earn per premium SMS, Cell C says the commission share varies from R1 to R30 per operator.
"The typical percentage paid to TV/radio stations and others is a separate agreement that they will have with the wireless application service provider (WASP)," says Happy Zondi, Cell C media relations manager.
"WASPs are typically third-parties who have physical connections into the mobile networks to provide their services (information, ringtones, logos, competition lines, etc) using the mobile networks as the delivery medium. These delivery mediums or bearer services include SMS, voice, USSD and MMS," Zondi explains.
Zondi says between 15% and 20% of the 2.5 million SMS messages sent by WASP customers monthly are premium SMSs for contests and broadcasting interaction. On average, over 25 million SMSs are sent through Cell C`s network per month.
Mandisa Korri, MTN senior manager, public relations and internal communications, explains that the revenue split varies per rate and volume. "In some cases, the WASP can on average receive between 35% and 40% of the total cost of the SMS."
While Korri would not disclose exact volumes, he says: "Premium-rated SMSs are two-thirds of the total volume of premium-rated services, compared to the premium-rated voice calls which comprise one-third."
MTN expects growth in this area of at least 20% to 30% per annum, with planned technologies such as USSD, LBS and 3G expected to give scope to broadcast productions in terms of interactive SMSs, MMS, live video-streaming and location-based initiatives.
"Vodacom transmitted 2 billion SMSs (2003: 1.5 billion) over its South African network during the year ended 31 March 2004," says Vodacom media relations manager Ivan Booth. "This is 33% up from 2003. There were over 60 000 active MMS users on the network at 31 March 2004. Data revenue contributed 4.4% of total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2004, from 3.3% for the previous year."
Booth is also optimistic about the growth potential. "The hype surrounding Vodacom`s launch of 3G in December should encourage customers to experience the entire range of products and services cellular has to offer. Hopefully, this should add to the already promising growth in all types of data usage."
WASPs` workload grows
Ryan Birkin, interactive and m-commerce manager at Exactmobile, says his company has always run partner services for select premier partner clients without extensive marketing.
"However, the beginning of this year we experienced a huge surge in corporate demand in a desire to get more interactive from a mobile point of view. We decided to create a focused Exactmobile Interactive division to cope with the workload."
Birkin says the revenue share model has always been a point of contention, but that "network operators do seem to have listened" and the revenue percentages increased.
"For a TV channel campaign, a typical revenue split would be: network operator 50%, WASP 7% to 15%, TV channel 35% to 43%."
Birkin says the SABC has been proactive in using competition SMS in its brand promotions and different feature shows, while DSTV has set up an interactive mobile content channel that allows for selection of content and SMS delivery, which is proving to be popular.
The future for SMS in iTV is exciting, says Birkin. "In the immediate short-term, the launch of premium-rated USSD by MTN and Vodacom is sure to impact with improved ability for interactivity and Exactmobile is prepared for the anticipated demand for these services. With increased WAP usage and the promise of Edge and 3G services, the sky really does become the limit as to where interactivity can go.
"Music, promotional video clips, movie trailers and all the other mobile Internet features become an interesting media toolbox for ad agencies and related creative media companies to test the limits on consumer interactivity."
Share