BBC: Current Mobile Video Business Models Not Sustainable
She also used her speech here to warn mobile executives that she will impose caps on roaming charges for data and text messaging in EU countries if they do not cut prices by the first of July.
"To avoid regulation, the industry will have to show its responsiveness to consumer concerns by credible reductions of the cost for data roaming both at the wholesale and at the retail level," said Reding, noting that the issue of EU citizens receiving massive data and SMS bills in EU member states other than their home country is contrary to its single market principles.
The reduction in data bills will also go a long way toward reducing the cost of content delivery on the consumer front, and perhaps lead the way to flat-rate data pricing of the type that Apple has been successful in winning in the UK with its iPhone data plan.
Star Power Backstage
Meanwhile, Robert Redford's keynote at Mobile Backstage, a special one-day Mobile Entertainment conference on Wednesday, February 13, touched on the potential of the small screen for high-end content developers including the work he and Sundance have done for 25 years for new cinematic voices. Augmenting his role in pushing the emergence of independent film in the entertainment industry, Redford is continuing to push the envelope with exploration and promotion of content delivery on mobile platforms.
He was joined at Mobile Backstage by actress and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini who has already completed 8 made-for-mobile films that were commissioned by the Sundace Film Festival to showcase mobile film content.
"My children are more on their laptops or cellulars than they are in front of the TV," she said. "They don't watch TV like they used to, so I think the audience is already there if the business issues of being paid for mobile content can be resolved."