Our take...
Rhythm New Media charged an estimated £80 (Euro 100) to £100 (Euro 125) CPM in the UK, which is significantly higher than the market average. Although the news can be seen as a blow for mobile video advertising, it is more of a signal that integrated players can offer better solutions than specialists who rely on singular formats. Screen Digest believes mobile advertising will consolidate into cross-media offerings and require operator collaboration, at least in the early stages. Operator-friendly Amobee (whose minority shareholders include Vodafone and Telefonica) inked video partnerships with PacketVideo, Quickplay Media and Thin Multimedia, while off-portal display specialist AdMob offers video ad solutions with MyWaves. Screen Digest expects the UK mobile VoD ad market to be worth £6.1m (Euro 7.7m) in 2012.