October 2010 Round up
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Dear Members and Colleagues, Welcome to another issue of AIME’s monthly news, a short update of our month’s activity and a forward look to calendar items, which will hopefully help with your planning. If you have any questions on issues raised pleased don’t hesitate to get in touch. You may have read last week in NMA, "Trade Bodies Unite to guide Brands into Mobile Retail", the announcement of AIME getting together with the online retailers organisation IMRG and the online advertising organisation IAB to form another organisation called MC-JIC (Mobile Commerce Joint Industry Committee). While members will be aware of the research we published with these partners back in August, it looks like the hacks at NMA got there first before we could announce to members the official formation of this group – apologies. By sharing resource and market reach, we feel the joint group can provide members with greater value, by supporting sector growth through key initiatives, providing stats and analysis and encouraging networking across membership bases. Significant retailer brands have already agreed to join the MC-JIC Board, and expect more news over the coming weeks. We have also formed an alliance with the UK trade body, UKIE. The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment represents 48 of the world's top video gaming and entertainment brands. With an increasingly multichannel and interactive gaming environment the co-operation with UKIE should help members work across the gaming sector more effectively. Certainly, it would be good to see these industry sectors come together and share ideas, network and hopefully open up business opportunities. On the regulatory radar this month AIME has important meetings coming up that will shape the market (particularly fixed line) moving forward. November 15th we are meeting Ofcom and their consultants BDO, who will report back on the analysis of BT figures, submitted to Ofcom to determine the BT PRS Bad Debt surcharge (currently submitted at 5.24%). We also expect Ofcom’s NTS consultation to be released this month, a core part being the review of pricing transparency. PhonepayPlus released their consultation on 12th Code Guidance notes last week and we will be looking to provide members with our initial view. Finally, a warm welcome to our new members, Madvert, Orca Digital, Access All Media and UKIE, who joined in October. Best
wishes, Toby Padgham |
This month's discussion topics:
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Chairman's Brief
Dear Members,
Meeting with Consumer Focus at the beginning of October, it was made clear that call cost transparency remains a critical issue, not only for gaining consumer trust in services but also because it remains an impediment to market growth. It was noted in their report ‘Strictly Unclear – research into information on the cost of TV voting’, that over 20% of consumers don’t vote because of the perceived high cost, compounded by 7 out of 10 consumer service agents over estimating the cost of calls to 090 when asked. The report does recognise improvements to transparency made by operators over the period of investigation and goes on to praise AIME’s pricing transparency site www.callcosts.co.uk as a useful tool in providing consumers with access to PRS call cost information particularly around the cost of calls made to 09 numbers from mobiles. Consumer Focus is supportive of the AIME initiative to improve call cost transparency and will be reporting back to government and encouraging Ofcom to support callcosts.co.uk and also around its continued evolution.
It was great to see the AIME Charity Forum get off to a flying start, with excellent attendance from both the industry and charity stakeholders on the 13th October. Agreement was reached with major charity representatives to form an AIME led task force, which will consider how the interactive industry can better support sector growth. Importantly, driving initiatives that encourage greater use of micropayment mechanisms and interactive engagement tools will continue to increase consumer trust in PRS and deliver more revenue streams in this sector. We look forward to reporting further positive developments over the coming months.
Following AIME’s success removing certain regulatory barriers to SMS voting in August, throughout October AIME has met with Broadcasters to talk over plans for reintroducing SMS voting to popular TV formats. The Interactive Broadcast Forum will be discussing the consolidated feedback at its next meeting on the 4th November, along with updates on the improvements that have been made to the vote delivery process. The participation TV sector continues to show growth and it is estimated that the reintroduction of SMS voting could add a further £10m in revenues to the sector.
Behind the scenes AIME has also been working closely with the PhonepayPlus senior team on the many procedural concerns that members’ have raised. Agreement has been reached on a number of improvements to the PhonepayPlus regulatory process and it is particularly good to see PPP implementing AIME’s request for greater use of the informal process. The informal process enables providers to rectify issues without resorting to a formal sanction process, and this more expeditious route to resolving issues is seen as a first step to restoring confidence in the market and attracting new investment. There will be further announcements at the AIME GM on the 1st December.
As mentioned in
last month’s newsletter Rudd Apsey (Sport Media Group) has moved on to
pastures new and stepped down from Board. I am very pleased to let members
know that Julian Lowrie, Head of Media Solutions at KComm has
accepted a place on the AIME Board. With Julian’s extensive experience and
knowledge of the Industry we look forward to welcoming him at the next
Board meeting later this month and working with him on our current Board
initiatives.
On a final note, Members will likely have noted the
publication in the last few days of the PhonepayPlus draft guidance. AIME
has already provided some initial feedback based upon discussion with
members during the 12th Code consultation. However the devil is in the
detail and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage all members
to read through the guidance notes pertinent to their particular
operations and feedback their views. AIME will be holding a round table
meeting on the 7th December to discuss the guidance and I hope you can
keep the date free.
I look forward to seeing all members at the GM 1st December.
Yours sincerely,
Edward BoddingtonAIME Chair
Showcase
Telemedia360
Manchester Preview: Monetising Media through new
channels
Monetising media content through new channels is crucial to all media businesses, yet there are plenty of hurdles and challenges to making it work – not least regulation, device fragmentation and gaining the trust of social network users. This is the message coming from the media industry and what the Telemedia360 event in Manchester on 16 November will be tackling.
Telemedia360 Manchester is a boutique event designed to bring together the media, brands and retailers with the mobile networks, aggregators, service providers and billers of the telemedia community to develop new revenue channels for media content and to look at how microbilling services can be used to monetise new interactive and social media channels between brands and their consumers.
The issues-driven conference will be looking at all the factors that are driving the change in how viewers and readers are becoming consumers of media content across a range of devices and channels, not least mobile, tablets, iTunes, red-button and even games consoles – not to mention the role of social networks in how consumer spread content and virally market content for brands.
AIME’s
Chairman, Edward Boddington, will be leading a keynote industry panel to
kick the event off as the telemedia and media industries come together
ahead of the Manchester Media Festival to look for answers and solutions
to help media companies make profitable use of the evolving comms
technology world.
RepresentationMeetings & Events
AIME Initiative: Regulatory Best Practice
AIME
Forum: Interactive
Broadcast
AIME Forum: Fixed Line
AIME Forum: Interactive Services for Charities
AIME Forum: Payforit Research
Industry Research: Confidence Survey
Industry Issue: VAT Increase
Industry Group: Mobile Commerce Joint Industry Committee (MC-JIC)
Regulatory Update
Industry
Consultations
Ofcom – Changes to Numbering Plan to Facilitate VAT Increase
PhonepayPlus – Guidance to support PhonepayPlus proposed new Code of Practice
Industry consultations & AIME
responses can be found on the AIME website |
Information & Networking
- New
members: Madvert, Orca Digital
- Attendance at Convergence Summit South – 5th Oct
- Attendance at MIT Networking – 6th Oct
- Supporting Association at Digital Content Monetization, 4G world
- Supporting Association & attendance at Changing Advertising Summit - 12th Oct
- Supporting Association & attendance at Mobile App World – 19th Oct
- Attendance at mBlox Mobile Revolution For Retailers event – 21st Oct
- Member emails
included:
- AIME Survey: Members Confidence Survey 2010
- AIME Publication: Print Best Practice Guide
- AIME Consultation Updates: Ofcom - Changes to the Numbering Plan to facilitate the VAT increase; PhonepayPlus 12th Code Guidance Notes
- AIME News Bulletins: Clarification on the Ofcom VAT statement regarding 090 £1.50 price cap; MoU between ASA & PhonepayPlus; Payforit Version 3.0 FAQ document
- Payforit Drop Off
Analysis – interim research findings
Member News
Mobile
Interactive Group ( MIG ) a global integrated mobile and digital
communications business today announces that its mobile internet and app
publishing platform, Kilrush, has delivered the new bespoke smartphone
application for online property search business, FindaProperty.com.
Lincs FM Group, the Lincolnshire based radio group, has partnered with Oxygen8 Communications to provide a text messaging service for its on-air competitions, encouraging greater interaction with listeners, whilst also improving brand loyalty.
Orca Digital - the leading interactive video provider – is today named one of the hottest and most innovative emerging companies in the 2010 Tech Media Invest supplement in The Guardian. www.guardian.co.uk/tech-media-invest-100/top-100-technology-innovators
Square 1
Communications is powering a unique student bike hire service in Newcastle
in the UK which relies on text for the unlocking and billing.
Dates for your Diary!2-3 November - Mobile User Experience - AIME Supporting
Association, member discount If you would like further information on any of AIME's activities, initiatives or benefits of membership, please contact me at zoe@aimelink.org Kind Regards, Zoe Patterson |
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