Nat Geo India Goes Mobile

Last October, National Geographic Ventures launched a mobile division to push its nature-focused content across one of the fastest-growing interactive channels. And now the same service is available in India too, with the channel announcing that starting this month, the media brand will be launching its WAP site comprising mobile-optimized content such as news, images, videos, music and green editorial.

By introducing its content through a new platform, the channel plans to expand the infotainment category further. Consumers can now access their favourite videos, wallpapers, animations, ringtones and other thrilling content through their individual mobile service operators or from the National Geographic WAP and website. The channel is already looking at deals with all mobile service operators across the country for this initiative. The content will be available as per applicable operator tariffs and will rely heavily on editorial and imagery from National Geographic’s yellow-bordered magazines, Web sites and cable channel.

NGC India senior VP content and communication Rajesh Sheshadri says, “There are about 100 million television sets and about 300 million mobile handsets in India today. At National Geographic Channel, we would like our content to be accessed across multiple platforms thereby making it more accessible to and enhancing relevance for the consumer. We are very proud to launch Nat Geo Mobile, which will bring a whole new world of information and entertainment to our viewers on the move.”

What does this mean for Nat Geo?

The potential for National Geographic to publish and monetize its content on mobile is huge. Of course the brand can take its content and strip it to short clips better suited to the mobile channel. Also, the society’s library of 150 different nature sounds can translate well into ringtones for purchase and it can adapt games from its gaming unit for mobile, charging a fee for the download.

In addition, consumers can access a daily refresh of articles, including utility content such as the National Geographic’s green guides franchise. Successful monetization of such efforts comes through licensing deals, transactions based on individual downloads, subscription fees for the direct-to-consumer site and offerings as well as revenue generated from ads on the WAP site. The channel can also diversify into huge sponsorship opportunities wrapped around tailored content