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Small wonder

Now watch serials and short films on your mobile

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT Great turn to own one

If this were 2010, we wouldn't bother to catch episodes of Desperate Housewives and Indian Idol 2 on our television sets. We'd be watching the video clippings on our mobile phones. We'd neither be whining about the quality of the clippings nor would we be shelling out too much to download them.

Crystal gazing is reassuring, especially when technology promises to add some fun to our daily routine. Very soon, television will lose its propriety control over the term `small screen'. The cell phone will begin to provide complete entertainment solutions. Mobile broadcasting is yet to begin in India but we do have a few pre-cursors.

Today, some cellular service providers have tied up with television networks to offer video clippings of cricket matches, news highlights and have just begun letting us download songs, in both audio and video formats. Enthusiastic forerunners in the entertainment industry have also taken fledgling steps in this direction. There's the 20-odd minute Rahul Bose film Ctrl Alt Del, which will be available as mobile phone download through a content sharing software. And Rajshri entertainment has begun work on two projects — making a serial with Bollywood actors for cell phones and offering short clips of Ramanand Sagar's Mahabharata. Globally, pop diva Shakira has plans to record a song exclusively for cell phone users. Are there takers?

Nitin Kalra, content head, Rajshri Films, is optimistic. He says, "There's a huge market out there. Research tells us that on an average people upgrade their handsets once a year and 20 per cent of users have multimedia-enabled phones." Actor Rahul Bose feels, "It's the future of entertainment and holds potential for niche content." The spoke in the wheel, however, is the lack of good bandwidth, which means your download time is longer and you pay more. Service providers are pressing the government for better bandwidth, the relaxation of which will in turn boost the use of 3G or third generation mobile sets that are more multimedia friendly.

Hutch, which has begun offering downloads of songs is trying to grapple with bandwidth restrictions. Naveen Chopra, the Chief Marketing Officer, explains, "A four to five MB song is compressed to 700 KB so that it can be downloaded faster. The quality matches that of a CD. Of course, the video download takes longer, about four to five minutes. Once you choose to download, the song is locked to your mobile number. This prevents you from messaging it to others and cuts down on piracy." Today, such a download costs Rs 20 - 30 per song. Service providers hope that in about six months, video-streaming facility will be available.

Globally, mobile broadcast has been gaining momentum. Reportedly, mobile phones can be equipped to receive both cellular calls and TV broadcasts. The bottom line is simple: Users do not have patience to watch two hours programmes on their handsets. So keep it short and simple.

SANGEETA DEVI K

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