Telecom Middleman Taps Movie Archive
Technology
by Christopher Keough
Forget people talking while they’re driving, Moviso LLC and the Motion Picture and Television Archive have partnered on a deal to bring celebrity photos to cell phones.
Starting this summer, cell users will be able to choose from a library of more than 1 million celebrity images, including James Dean and Elvis Presley, that can be downloaded for $1 each.
Shawn Conahan, Moviso’s president, said the operation, a unit of Vivendi Universal, works much like private label groceries, in that most customers think the content comes from their carrier. Moviso and the as-yet unidentified carriers have a revenue sharing arrangement that returns between 35 percent and 65 percent of each purchase to Moviso, Conahan said. He declined to say what Moviso’s split was with the archive, though it won’t make any upfront contribution to the deal.
As for the depth of the market for Hollywood icons smiling out from cell phones, Conahan is convinced the market is there. He said Moviso gets 100,000 downloads daily from customers around the world pulling down its ring tones and primitive graphic files, and celebrity images are yet another way for wireless users to personalize the devices.
“People identify with pop icons,” Conahan said. “What we’re doing is enabling users to connect with people who are meaningful to them.”
Conahan said the company would try to boost revenues from the service by signing advertisers to sponsor the content.
The deal with the movie and television archive is consistent with Moviso’s role as middleman between wireless carriers and content providers. It has a catalogue of mobile media ring tones, graphics it delivers to wireless operators, device manufacturers, entertainment companies and retailers.
The company, in the midst of a move from Santa Monica to Westwood, operates on about $9 million a year, Conahan said. The company is a reconstitution of ring tone provider Premium Wireless Services, which Vivendi bought in January. Conahan said the division would reach break-even by the first quarter of 2003.
Chip Shop
Semiconductor designer Motia Inc. closed its first round of funding earlier this month with $5 million from three venture capital groups.
The Pasadena company develops semiconductors, chip sets and modules that Chief Executive and President Paul Sun claims will accommodate larger bandwidth communications and at longer ranges. Sun wouldn’t talk about the extent of the company’s technological advances, except to say they will significantly improve wireless communications.
He wouldn’t disclose customers, but did say Motia is selling products to manufacturers in the wireless communications industry.
The funding round was led by Kodiak Venture Partners of Concord, Mass., and included investment by Axiom Venture Partners LP of Hartford, Conn., and San Francisco and Carrot Capital LLC of New York. None of the investors returned calls for comment on the funding round. Investors from Kodiak and Axiom joined Motia’s board of directors.
Mike O’Neill, a partner at Kodiak, said his company is investing in the wireless industry and found Motia to be interesting for a mix of reasons.
“They have core technology, some intellectual property we think is better,” he said. “They also have a team that is experienced in this area to turn it into product. You really need both.”
Motia was founded in July 2000 by Sun and James Wang, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering. Sun is the former chairman and chief executive of DSL.net. He had also headed PairGain Technologies Inc., Avidia Systems Inc. and Transwitch Corp.
Wang was president and CTO of Fastrack Information Inc., a start up firm that developed and marketed wireless communications, navigation and Internet technologies.
Animated Advance
JAKKS Pacific Inc. has signed a deal with kids cable outlet Nickelodeon to develop a series of low-cost, portable video games based on Nickelodeon properties.
The TV Games product line will be developed and marketed through JAKKS’ Toymax International subsidiary and will consist of single-game titles. The gaming systems will have control pads that plug into a television or VCR for single-player gaming.
It sounds simplistic, and it is meant to be. A Nickelodeon spokeswoman said the games are not meant to compete with the sophisticated CD-running, Internet-accessing consoles from Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.
JAKKS has a license to market products based on the likes of “Blues Clues,” “Rugrats,” “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Wild Thornberrys.” Nickelodeon is a unit of Viacom Inc.
Officials at Malibu-based JAKKS, which is in a quiet period while it is raising support for a secondary stock offering, would not comment on the deal.
Staff reporter Christopher Keough can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235, or at
[email protected].
