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Lust and Murder on Your Cell Phone
Hollywood tests "short-form" programming.

Michael Stroud
02.03.05

It's long been an article of faith that long-form programming, like movies and TV dramas, wouldn't work well on mobile phones due to tiny, poor-quality screens and the short attention spans of cell phone users.

But Verizon and Sprint are betting that short -form drama may be just the ticket. They've launched vastly different dramas on mobile phones to test the waters.

While I'd argue that news and sports video on mobile phones is a no-brainer (see my recent column "Here Comes the TV Phone"), the jury's out on whether consumers will pay for fiction. The two carriers' mobile dramas—and others to come in the months ahead—will begin to answer that question.

Next week, Verizon and Fox Entertainment Group will launch three "mobisode" series designed specifically for cell phone screens—in other words, they pack a lot of video action into tiny segments. The shows include " 24: Conspiracy ," a spinoff of Fox's Emmy Award-winning "24" series; and two new made-for-cell phone dramas called "Sunset Hotel" and "Love and Hate."

Each series will consist initially of 24 to 26 one-minute episodes of video. A "Conspiracy" episode that I viewed last week featured a woman luring an FBI man into her room, snapping his neck, and then placing the dead man's hand on a fingerprint scanning device to gain access to...well, tune in next week. (It looked great on a big screen, but I can't vouch for how it will look on a mobile phone.)

The show will rely on Verizon's new V CAST service, which allows streaming video at cable modem speeds to enable up to 15 frames a second of video. (Again, see my recent column "Here Comes the TV Phone" for more details.)

The episodes will be bundled as part of a $15-per-month multimedia service, offered by Verizon, that allows consumers to download up to 300 video clips a day from sources such as CNN and Fox Sports. The clips will range from 30 seconds to three minutes in length.

Despite the Fox network's involvement in the venture, the media company isn't ready to give up TV shows for mobile phone dramas just yet.

"Our eyes are wide open," said Merisa Ferman, executive vice president at Fox's Twentieth Television. "We're at ground zero. This type of series may or may not work."

Verizon and Fox executives declined to give financial details about the project. Networks typically pay upfront costs for productions they commission, as well as an advance.

Sprint beat Verizon to the punch with cell phone dramas. Its show " The Spot "—a relaunch of the 1995 webisode series that went under when the internet tanked—has been on mobile phones since last year.

Sprint's mobile phone drama, though, is a more conservative affair, consisting simply of images and voice dialog. It's an extension of a web-based video soap opera about Gen Y types living a typically dysfunctional Santa Monica beach life. (Love, murder, and oldsters who get in the way—the usual). I was underwhelmed by the quality. The service only loaded once out of the five times I tried to access it using my son's admittedly last-generation phone.

But the service does   include one feature that the Verizon mobisodes lack so far: community. Viewers of the mobile phone segments (600 so far) routinely email and leave voice mails for the actors, who improvise up to 90 percent of their lines. Those fan communications are often stitched right into the plot. Stewart St. John, The Spot's executive producer, calls the concept "blurred reality." He'd love to see a groundswell of fans that could lead to a real TV series.

It's a great idea. Unfortunately, great ideas aren't necessarily money makers. The original "The Spot" went under. So did " Todd TV ," FX Network's innovative reality show about a rudderless Hermosa Beach waiter who took direction—via email, phone calls, and mobile text messaging—from viewers around the country.

So stay glued to your cell phone. The mobile drama is set to unfold.

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