:: Australia's first made-for-mobile programs established

By: Carmine Pascuzzi

Telstra Next G mobile phone customers will have access to Australia’s first daily global digest of music tracks and videos from Take 40 Australia following an agreement between mcm entertainment (mcm) and Telstra. mcm’s new daily Take 40 mobile episodes, available through BigPond TV on Telstra Next G phones, are the first made-for-mobile music program in Australia.

It offers a daily four-minute global mash-up of chart updates, fresh tracks, artist chats, tours, news and what’s hot. The Take 40 mobile episodes are mcm’s first foray into mobile content and cement its cross-media strategy to offer premium entertainment content on radio, TV, online and now 3G mobile devices. The agreement will be anchored on a revenue-sharing model, whereby Telstra and mcm will share subscription and advertising revenues.

mcm’s Chief Executive Officer Tony McGinn said the Take 40 mobile episodes on Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network meant consumers could now enjoy a fresh daily music entertainment update on the bus, train, tram or ferry, or in a café over their morning coffee.

BigPond Group Managing Director Justin Milne said the new Take 40 mobile programme will complement the existing range of on demand videos available on BigPond TV. "Our BigPond Mobile portal is continually updated with new and exciting entertainment and we are pleased to now have Take 40 mobile. This takes music news and video clips out of the lounge room and puts them in our customers’ hands when they’re out and about or having some down time at work or uni.”

Telstra Next G customers can watch the daily Take 40 Australia mobile program via mobile on BigPond TV through either a monthly subscription service, with access to each of the seven daily episodes as many times as they want, or a casual subscription per episode.

Advertising on the daily Take 40 mobile will be via exclusive weekly sponsorship blocks and will have the added value of being able to tie in interactive competitions. Telstra BigPond and Take 40 have existing radio and online collaboration. BigPond sponsors Take 40 Australia and take40.com. It is also mcm’s Digital Download partner for Take 40 and movideo.com.

The weekly outlook of the Take 40 mobile episodes will be:
Sunday – Take 40 Chart Update
Monday – Take 40 Fresh Tracks
Tuesday – Take 40 Chats With (Artist Feature)
Wednesday – Take 40 ‘Out and About’ (Live music and movies)
Thursday – Take 40 ‘Who’s Hot?
Friday – Take 40 Friday Flashback
Saturday – Take 40 Weekly Wrap-Up