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NBA Moves To Paid Mobile App To Test Fan Interest

The NBA is banking on its new Game Time mobile app - literally.

After scoring big with the free version of the app (for BlackBerry, iPhone and GPhone), which offers live scores, in-game stats and player standings, division standings for every team, team rosters, the new paid app version will feature live radio coverage, video recaps, detailed player cards, league news and more.

Time will tell if fans will pay for this; on the iPhone, it's $9.99, which seems like a bargain for diehards.

But you do have to wonder why you can't get the same thing online for just $10 a year. 

More importantly, it would be cool to actually leverage mobile - the fact that the user might want to use the phone while in-stadium, for instance. Nothing about what's described really has anything to do with mobile. But add in some in-game, in-stadium features - the ability to send messages/photos/video to the jumbotron, vote on top players, send Twitter updates or watch/listen to live coverage, receive calls from players from the stands, and participate in live polls, trivia or other games - with in-stadium prizes like upgraded seats or free food - and then Game Time takes on new meaning.

Still - a nice move from NBA, which seems to be a key player in mobile app adoption.

Read all about it, here.

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GQ Magazine To Sell Digital Versions of Each New Issue on iPhone

The Swimsuit Issue is coming to your cell phone in an whole new way.

Condé Nast has announced it will start selling digital versions of each new issue of GQ via a new iPhone app.

Each issue will cost $2.99, or 1/2 off each issue's $4.99 news stand price, and will replicate everything from the print ad - including advertisements. An added bonus: advertisers would be able to add digital links from their "print" ads on the mobile platform.

I'm not sure how good that will look on the iPhone...one has to wonder how "assets" may or may not be further enhanced on its tiny screen....but with the rumored Apple tablet, well, that could get interesting. 

Either way, if this app works out, look for Condé - and countless others - to bring more titles to the iPhone.

Read more, here.

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Comcast Plans To Bring TV Shows To Your Mobile PHone

Whether or not it's Comcastic remains to be seen.

The cable operator is launching an On Demand Online service to enable subscribers to watch shows on their computers, and today announced that might include a mobile component that lets you catch The Jay Leno Show or what not on your mobile phone.

What's also unclear if that means a live feed of the company's cable operations or if it's on demand shows that are available after their original airing, anytime you want it. 

I just wish they could make their DVRs work better and their cable on demand programming more extensive. I'm not sure I'll ever sign up for additional services like watching a show on the computer, much less a mobile phone, if it means paying more.

These offerings shouldn't be value add. They should be cost of entry.

Read more about Comcast's plans, here.

And see my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, on why it's cost of entry, time, not added value.

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'People' Magazine Getting 18 Million Mobile Page Views Per Month

Speaking of magazines loving mobile, another good example is Time Inc.' People magazine, which is making the most of the mobile medium for fans that need to get their fill of celebrity news on their cell phones wherever they go.

Click here for video of Fran Hauser, president of digital operations for Time Inc.'s Style and Entertainment Group, discussing why mobile's making a big difference for her titles.

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Is Netflix Streaming Coming to Iphone?

Rumor has it, anyway.

Multichannel News (by way of Tech Crunch) is reporting that Netflix's streaming service would soon have an iPhone app to call its own.

Netflix clearly aims to be an on-demand brand as DVDs as a medium face certain extinction in coming years. Aside from an iPhone app, the rumor is the streaming capability will come to Nintendo Wii, adding to existing services on the Xbox 360, the Roku box, Blu-ray players and even built-in on some television models.

We'll see if the rumor holds true. In the meantime, you can read all about it - and maybe spread the rumor yourself, here.

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App Store Turns 1; Shows Off Its Favorite Apps

Hard to believe it, but Apple's App Store is now one year old.

To celebrate, it has compiled its favorite apps (not sure if that means editorially or in terms of sales). 

Either way, we're talking 1.5 billion app downloads and at least a billion in sales. 

I'm personally responsible for my own fair share.

Read more here.

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Pay-To-Pry: 'People' Launches $1.99 App; Save $98.01 Off Newstand Price

People who need "People" can now get it in their pockets.

Today's Washington Post reports that People magazine has launched an ad-supported app version of its publication for iPhones that - gasp - costs money to download. What, these news organizations want to make money or something?

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and others have all launched app versions that are free - begging the question of why pay for the pub at all if you can download it for nothing.

People thinks otherwise, and has launched a $1.99 app. That's a lot less than the $100 a year subscription for the print version, so hey - now you can pry into the lives of celebrities and pretend you're really just checking email.

"Penelope Cruz Hit by Food Poisoing in Cannes," "Selena & Taylor's [Public Displays of Affection])," "Zac Efron Disses Vanessa Hudgens" and more can all by yours, everywhere you go.

When US magazine does the same thing, you'll know it's a trend.

but geez, can the major leagues charge for content, too?

Read more, here.

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Amazon (Finally) Releases 'Kindle for iPhone'

File this under the "It's About Time" department: Amazon has released Kindle for iPhone, which gives iPhone users the ability to read more than 240,000 Kindle-formatted books from Amazon's e-book library.

The Author's Guild, not very happy about Kindle in the first place, is probably about to go apoplectic.

Which, as they can tell you, is a $10 word for ape sh*7t.

Let's face it: Paper books as a medium are going to go away in a few years.

The Guild needs to secure residual rights for digital distribution - especially given Kindle (and presumably at some point, the iPhone's) text-reading capabilities, which turns every book into an audio book. Authors need to be paid for that.

Amazon should be helping authors apply the necessary pressure to ensure those rights.

Authors (like me) should get excited about new distribution models for our work.

And iPhone users (like me) should be going yippee!

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Men's Mag's 'FHM Girls' Go Mobile

The lad mags are landing in your pocket.

Well, that's actually been the case for years now, what with Maxim's Beer-Buddy-To-Go and Maxim Girls mobile offerings.

But now, Bauer Media's FHM is joining the frenzy, which will include mobile graphics, audio, video and messaging for the North American market, direct from the UK-based pub, according to Mobile Entertainment.

Canada's Airborne Media is providing the mobile solutions to make it happen. I believe Airborne enables mobile content from Maxim, as well.

Somewhere along the way I lost what "FHM" actually stands for.

Reader "ThorB" reminded me it stands for For Him Magazine.

Maybe now it should be rechristened For Him Mobile.

Read all about it, here.

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Mobile Content to Generate $52 Billion By 2013...Or Not

Smart phones may help some carriers' dumb pipes make serious money in mobile content.

Or not.

RCR is reporting today that mobile network operators are going to rake in $23 billion this year. But they could top $52 billion by 2013 if they can go from dumb pipes to smart ones - at least according to Juniper Research.

Bottom line: Carriers need to modify deals with content providers so they want to be on-deck. Right now, carriers take a large portion of the revenues. If they want to grow, they need to let content providers make more money - or stand by while they bring their business off-deck and away from carriers.

Strange when you think about it. Time Warner Cable (cable television carrier) just had to shell out a bunch of money to keep Viacom (content provider) on its system. How is it that the mobile carriers aren't paying big bucks for their content, too?

Read more, here.

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