NBC Universal (NYSE: GE) now prefers off-deck mobile programming because it hit brick walls when requesting consumer data from mobile networks. During a panel at Mipcom in Cannes, NBCU Global Networks’ sales director Amelia Gammon aimed exasperation at Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) senior content relationship manager Neil Walker, grumbling the networks have not been able to give it the user demographic data it wants to target its ads and develop shows. The Peacock Network launched its own WAP sites for NBC, USA, Bravo and NBC Sports in March and further initiatives (film, non-U.S.) are due this fall.
Gammon: “We’ve been trying for years (to get) the information from these guys, but they don’t have it and that’s and that’s why we’re going in to the off-net space, to get this information … from very small consumer profiles. When people sign up to our service, we ask them a few demographic questions. The important thing for us is, we don’t know who our mobile demographic is – we know who our film and TV fans are but we don’t know if they’re the same people and that’s vital to informing our content decisions about what programming or new content production we make available.”
Flamed by content providers as the lone carrier on the stage, Walker countered: “I don’t want to get argumentative – it’s not that we don’t have it, it’s just that you haven’t made it worth our while to share it just yet .. We do have that information, but it’s spread around the organization. What we need to do is bring that together – but what is right and proper?” More on paidContent:UK.