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Cell porn a tough sell
Mobile providers resist offering adult content, violent games
By Matt Richtel and William Sparrow
January 18, 2005
With new functions to send e-mail, take pictures and listen to music, the
mobile phone has turned into a portable minicomputer.
But the operators of phone networks are resisting new services that proved
popular on the traditional personal computer: pornography and violent video
games.
US officials have waded in warning of “high-level” interest in recent cases in
India, gauging developments in one of the world's largest mobile phone markets.
Recently of particular interest was the Delhi school sex scandal where a
student filmed sexual acts with his phone. It quickly becaume widely
distributed via MMS and the Internet and eventually led to the arrest of Avnish
Bajaj, the Indian-born American who heads eBay's Indian subsidiary, Baazee.com
- one of the locations the clip was sold.
A growing number of content providers in the US are adapting steamy images and
video for use on mobile phones. But the major phone operators are blanching at
the images and at providing access to new video games that are violent,
explicit and designed for phones, such as one based on the movie Kill Bill.
Cingular Wireless, the US's largest carrier, said last month it would stop
offering customers the option of downloading images of pornography-film stars,
a service that had been offered by AT&T Wireless. Cingular, which is owned
by SBC Communications and BellSouth, bought AT&T Wireless in October. The
images - of clothed women, at $5.99 USD a download - became available to
Cingular consumers in mid-November.
"We're not going to offer adult content; we're not going to offer ultraviolent
games," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Cingular. "That is not compatible
with the Cingular brand."
Such decisions show the fine line the carriers are trying to walk. Many, for
example, already offer downloadable images of bikini-clad models from magazines
such as Sports Illustrated and Maxim. But some critics are raising concerns
that the phone operators are acting as content gatekeepers.
Historically, telephone carriers have not been allowed to censor what people
say over the telephone or what phone numbers they call.
Similarly, the Federal Communications Commission has said that mobile phone
operators cannot censor what sites consumers visit on the Internet.
But the FCC said no rule governed what content the carriers could sponsor and
sell themselves. Gene Kimmelman, senior director of Consumers Union, which
publishes Consumer Reports magazine, said the operators of telephone networks,
while not stopping consumers from visiting sites over the Internet, were
creating two tiers of access, then making their own value judgments about what
content to include in the more accessible tier.
"It's an ominous trend away from a tradition of an open telephone network," he
said.
The issue also comes about in a rapidly changing environment in terms of
business, technology and politics. The operators, having saturated the market
by selling phone service to most American adults, expect new revenue growth to
come in large part from getting consumers to spend more money sending and
receiving data.
Along with ring tones and screen savers, racy pictures and violent games are
now part of that commercial equation. In Europe and Asia, mobile-phone users
can readily download erotic images and even explicit videos to be watched on
the tiny screens. In a study published this year, one major Nordic carrier
reported that 40 percent of Internet searches were for sex-oriented content,
according to Charles S. Golvin, a telecommunications industry analyst with
Forrester Research.
Waat Media, a Los Angeles company that adapts images and video to mobile phone
formats for Vivid Video, a major pornography-film company, said that 200,000
Europeans were downloading its content each month.
Playboy in Europe sells access to images and short video striptease acts. Randy
Nicolau, president of distribution for the Playboy Entertainment Group, said he
was surprised by the popularity.
"The most popular format is the eight-minute format," Nicolau said. "It just
blows me away, given the screen size."
The service is providing a small but growing source of revenue for overseas
phone operators, but industry analysts and executives expect that to change
quickly.
"Adult content will be a nontrivial source of revenue going forward," Golvin
said, noting that Asian carriers already are seeing significant contributions
to sales.
This month, Playboy announced plans to develop its content for use on mobile
phones in the United States. Nicolau said that the content would be less
explicit than in Europe - featuring images of fully clothed Playboy models, for
instance.
Already, some carriers are trying to demonstrate sensitivity to political mores
while also satisfying consumer interest in sex-oriented content. For instance,
while the major carriers Cingular, Verizon and Sprint said they did not offer
sex-related content, all sold downloadable images of bikini models. Cingular
subscribers can choose from dozens of images - including some of topless models
who are covering their breasts with their arms - provided by Sports
Illustrated.
Sprint offers a handful of images of bikini models from Sports Illustrated and
Maxim. A company spokeswoman, Mary Nell Westbrook, acknowledged that the images
may not look different from images of models provided by Playboy or a
pornography-film company, but she added that Sprint did not plan to offer
access to the racy brands.
"A Playboy brand or Penthouse brand - those do not meet our requirements," she
said. "Sports Illustrated and Maxim do."
Whether even more of this muted content could catch on in the United States
depends first on whether the carriers decide to make it available. Roger
Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst with the Yankee Group, a
technology market research and consulting firm, said he believed that carriers
were reacting to the political climate.
"One of the biggest fears of the wireless carriers is that - with a more
conservative United States - that the Southern Baptist conference or some such
group would boycott them," he said.
Carriers are being similarly picky about what kind of video games they make
available for download, according to industry executives. Matthew Bellows, a
vice president for Gamespot.com, an online site that reviews video games, said
he was aware of a number of instances in which phone companies had rejected
games completely or told developers to modify a game if they wanted it
considered for part of the menu offering.
"It's the Wal-Mart-ization effect," he said.
What they're saying
• "We're not going to offer adult content; we're not going to offer
ultraviolent games. That is not compatible with the Cingular brand."
- Mark Siegel, spokesman for Cingular
• "A Playboy brand or Penthouse brand - those do not meet our requirements.
Sports Illustrated and Maxim do."
- Mary Nell Westbrook, spokeswoman for Sprint
• "One of the biggest fears of the wireless carriers is that - with a more
conservative United States - that the Southern Baptist conference or some such
group would boycott them."
- Roger Entner, telecommunications industry analyst
• "The most popular format is the eight-minute format. It just blows me away,
given the screen size."
- Randy Nicolau, president of distribution for the Playboy Entertainment Group
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India's
MMS sex clip drama retold
1-18-2005
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