Disney unveils UK mobile portal
13 February 2008
Disney unveils UK mobile portal
At Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona this week US-based entertainment company Walt Disney announced the launch of a Disney-branded mobile portal in the UK and plans to roll out this strategy throughout Europe.
This time last year telecoms.com met executives from the entertainment company to talk about the imminent launch of a family oriented Disney-branded mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
The own-branded MVNO went the same way as the Disney-owned ESPN MVNO. Disney, like ESPN, is a strong brand. However, it is also very niche. Neither offering was able to compete and both suffered from limited handset availability and restricted distributions channels.
Disney, however, has not gone away. The firm went back to the drawing board and come up with a new strategy. A strategy that would help it overcome issues of distribution and handset acquisition. Over the last 12 months it has announced two operator partnerships: Japan's Softbank and 3 Italy both have Disney-branded offerings, and the firm expects to announce more in the coming months.
To some, these may look like competing offerings, Sunil Gunderia, head of mobile, Europe, Walt Disney Internet Group thinks not: "The Disney-branded operator offering is very much about targeting and segmenting the audience. Very much about bringing the Disney brand into the operators' store."
With more carriers offering all you can eat data packages it's likely that a greater number of media firms will develop own-branded portals of their own. However, Gunderia still thinks there is a role for network carriers: "The operator-owned portals are still the primary way for consumers to access the mobile internet," he said.
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