reuters.com
Tue Oct 18, 2005 10:56 AM ET167
By Kirstin Ridley
LONDON (Reuters) - Video phone pioneer 3 UK is bringing to Britain a service that could allow its customers to make thousands of pounds by shooting their own video clips -- and charging others to watch them.
The smallest of Britain's five mobile phone network operators said on Tuesday that customers could now use their mobile phone to make a 30 second video and upload it onto a "See Me TV" channel for others to view.
Each time a clip is downloaded by one of 3 UK's 3.2 million customers, the performer gets paid one penny.
"We wanted to create the ultimate reality channel, where you're the talent and you decide what you want to do," said 3's Chief Operating Officer Gareth Jones.
"And the more popular your clips, the more money you stand to make. The only limit to what you can earn is your talent -- or the lengths you'll go to make an impression."
Credits from downloads are accumulated in an account and then a transfer made via online payment service Paypal (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research). A spokesman said customers at the company's Italian sister, 3 Italia, had already made thousands of euros from the service.
But in an industry which has spawned phenomena such as "happy slapping" -- when usually teenagers assault people and then capture the action on a mobile video phone -- the company insisted it had an editorial team that would apply "very, very strict rules" on content.
DIGITAL MUSIC
3 UK, which is owned by Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa (0013.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and which is being groomed for a possible market debut next year, also took a step deeper into the digital music market by announcing that every audio track its customers download onto mobile phones would now also be available online for no extra charge.
Mobile phone companies have been keen to grab a revenue share from portable music player companies such as Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and its iconic iPod music jukebox. But customers who buy tracks on their mobile phones have so far not been able to access the music on other devices.
3 UK said the market for digital music had now overtaken the value of the global singles market, with researchers such as Forrester predicting that digital music revenues in the UK will top 204 million euros by 2007
The company, which sells tracks at a flat rate of 1.50 pounds, said customers who bought a track over the air would be sent a text message with a code to access the same track as a computer download.
Chief Executive Bob Fuller insisted that 3 UK, which launched Europe's first third-generation (3G) video phones amid much fanfare in 2003 -- only to fall far short of initial customer targets -- had listened, learned and fixed its service.
He told a news conference that it now took as little as 24 hours for a product idea to move from conception to launch, where once it had taken six months. And the search is on for fresh revenue streams.
3 UK said it was in talks with potential advertising partners, who could beam adverts direct onto its mobile phones.
"It's the Holy Grail for advertising," Fuller said. He declined to divulge the names of possible partners.
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