Most media owners are strong believers in a strategy of “any-and-every-platform” ubiquity.
But, for this season’s mobile strategy, the makers of the UK’s popular X Factor TV show are launching an “exclusive” app only on Nokia’s Ovi store.
It’s more than just an exclusive window – producer TalkbackThames and broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) confirmed to paidContent:UK they will not launch equivalent apps for the more popular iOS or Android.
It’s doubtless a coup for Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which is playing catch-up to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and has lost even the “challenger” mantle to smartphones packing Android. And it comes as Nokia prepares to retail the N8, its next flagship handset, on which it is betting its comeback.
But the show itself, the huge music talent contest run by Simon Cowell, could doubtless have reached a wider mobile audience by embracing those other two platforms.
The official X Factor app, launching on Ovi on Friday, will include news, video, photos, Facebook and Twitter integration and competitions.
Nokia ended its three-year sponsorship of the TV show in 2007, when Carphone Warehouse took the mantle and nevertheless used it to promote Nokia’s Comes With Music service.
Nokia has been doing an awareness campaign for Ovi for the last month or two, including TV ads.
Ovi claimed