MSNBC.com and SmartVideo to Provide Ad-Supported Mobile News Services

SmartVideo Technologies and MSNBC.com announced the completion of a successful beta test for MSNBC.com's new ad-supported mobile news service. Phase two rollout is slated for November 2006. MSNBC.com will offer users a value added mobile news service that not only gives consumers access to a variety of top headlines and news videos from NBC News programs on their data enabled wireless devices, but also allows MSNBC.com to generate revenues through the platform's ad insertion model.

The new mobile news service is offered free of charge to MSNBC.com users through the company's partnership with SmartVideo. SmartVideo provides MSNBC.com with a complete backend solution for the delivery of video to the mobile platform which includes ad insertion, Dynamic Ad Serving, and the insertion of Pre and Post Roll into the MSNBC.com provided content.

Analyst firm The Shosteck Group's latest market research study indicates that mobile advertising has the potential to generate in excess of $1 billion in annual revenues by 2010 for ad spend.

"MSNBC.com is increasingly looking at ways to offer its high quality video content to mobile users for free using an ad-supported model," said Kyoo Kim, vice president of sales for MSNBC.com. "As we did with online video streaming, we are excited to pave the way for ad-supported mobile video advertising as we have seen much interest from our conversations with marketers across the country. And we're very excited to be working with SmartVideo, a leader in the mobile video content and advertising space."