TURNER BROADCASTING SIGNS MOBILE CONTENT DEAL WITH FUN TEXT
DATE: 20 June 2008
Turner Broadcasting is set to add a range of Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim content into the portfolio of mobile messaging service provider Fun Text. Cartoon Network content which will be available includes smash hit boys' action animation series Ben 10, The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory.
Fun Text is a new peer-to-peer messaging service which combines the benefits of multimedia messaging with the ease of SMS use by allowing users to quickly and easily add rich media into their mobile messages in order to express either greetings or sentiments.
Cartoon Network, Boomerang and Adult Swim content held in the Fun Text store will be regularly updated and can be accessed using the existing messaging menu on a users' handset, removing the need to download images from a wap portal and separately compose an MMS message. Integrating Fun Text into the phone and users' contacts list allows the service to sit alongside SMS and MMS menus and become a central part of messaging.
James Pycock, Business Development Director at ISL, the company behind Fun Text, said: "This deal with Turner Broadcasting means people can now use their favourite characters as a part of their everyday messaging. Having Ben 10 or Dexter personally deliver your birthday greetings is certainly a unique way to get your point across."
Joe Braman Director of Mobile Sales at Turner Broadcasting adds, "This is a valuable new channel that moves beyond portal downloads and into peer-to-peer communication. Letting people use their favourite characters via Fun Text's user friendly mechanic is a great way of engaging with our audience."
Content will be available with immediate effect on the Fun Text content stores.
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About Fun Text
Fun Text is a new mobile messaging service that enables users to quickly and easily add rich media to their text messages for emotional expression. Users can add Fun Text images to their messages through an online content store integrated into the handset's messaging menu structure.Fun Text combines the richness of MMS with the ease of use of SMS.
Fun Text represents a new category of messaging in-between user-generated photo-messaging and SMS – 'emotional messaging' where users can deploy professionally created content within messages to clearly express emotional statements. MMS is generally used occasionally for sending camera phone pictures and SMS is used regularly for brief, 'functional' statements – Fun Text creates a new, high traffic, emotional communication medium as an alternative to both.
Fun Text drives MMS traffic, leveraging historic infrastructure investments for operators. The 'emotional messaging' category gives users new contact opportunities and reasons to send MMS, driving traffic over existing MMS infrastructure. Trials of the Fun Text handset application suggest it can drive an MMS uplift of over 50%.
Fun Text is being adopted by some of the world's leading operators. The handset-based application recently launched on 3 in the UK and the service already powers portal-based WAP messaging applications for operators like T-Mobile O2 and Sprint. Fun Text is a proven technology and consumer proposition that has demonstrated significant revenue uplift for operators.
About Cartoon Network
SKY 601; Tiscali TV 312; Virgin TV 704. Also available on: Top Up TV Anytime; BT Vision; Sky Anytime; Virgin Central; Tiscali TV on-demand 310.
Cartoon Network is home to some of the funniest and most exciting new cartoons.It delivers the best range of kids' entertainment 24 hours a day with hit shows including Ben 10, Robotboy, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, My Gym Partner is a Monkey, Codename: Kids Next Door, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Skatoony and Xiaolin Showdown.
Cartoon Network can also be experienced through its multi-award winning website www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk, on broadband www.supercartoonnetwork.co.uk, via games on digital cable and satellite, through VOD, and on mobile. Since launching as a pan-European channel in 1993, Cartoon Network now has localised services throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa where it is available in 14 languages and in over 46 million homes. Cartoon Network is operated by Turner Broadcasting System Europe, a Time Warner Company.
About Boomerang
Sky 603; Tiscali TV 309; Virgin TV 730. Also available on: Top Up TV Anytime; Sky Anytime.
Boomerang offers an exciting mix of established, family favourite cartoons such as Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry alongside new live action comedy series such as My Spy Family – from the makers of My Parent are Aliens – and The Latest Buzz. Boomerang is available 24 hours a day on digital satellite and cable in the UK, and as a pan-European channel, as well as in Spain. Boomerang + 1 is also available 24 hours a day on Sky 618, and Virgin TV 731. Boomerang is operated by Turner Broadcasting System Europe, a Time Warner Company.
About Adult Swim
Turner Broadcasting System's US smash-hit channel, launched in the US in 2001 and in the UK in late 2006. Adult Swim features non-conformist programming aimed at adults 18-34 including a broad mix of humor spanning unconventional animation and live action comedy which has earned it a discerning and cult following in the UK. Flagship programmes that are part of the block include: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Metalocalypse, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law and Space Ghost Coast to Coat.
Adult Swim is available in the UK through the channel's website www.adultswim.co.uk, Bravo TV, BT Vision, Mobi TV, 02, Sky Mobile, YouTube, Joost, Bebo and Daily Motion; in South Africa on GO; Russia on Channel 2 x 2 and Germany on Maxdome VOD/SVOD.
For more information:
Patrick Herridge
Parys Communications
0207 622 9951
Yinka Akindele
Turner Broadcasting
020 7693 1105