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Mobile providers resist offering adult content, violent games

By Matt Richtel, The New York Times
January 17, 2005

With new functions to send e-mail, take pictures and listen to music, the mobile phone has turned into a portable minicomputer.

But the operators of phone networks are resisting new services that proved popular on the traditional personal computer: pornography and violent video games.
A growing number of content providers are adapting steamy images and video for use on mobile phones. But the major phone operators are blanching at the images and at providing access to new video games that are violent, explicit and designed for phones, such as one based on the movie Kill Bill.

Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest carrier, said last month it would stop offering customers the option of downloading images of pornography-film stars, a service that had been offered by AT&T Wireless. Cingular, which is owned by SBC Communications and BellSouth, bought AT&T Wireless in October. The images - of clothed women, at $5.99 a download - became available to Cingular consumers in mid-November.

"We're not going to offer adult content; we're not going to offer ultraviolent games," said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for Cingular. "That is not compatible with the Cingular brand."

Such decisions show the fine line the carriers are trying to walk. Many, for example, already offer downloadable images of bikini-clad models from magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Maxim. But some critics are raising concerns that the phone operators are acting as content gatekeepers.

Historically, telephone carriers have not been allowed to censor what people say over the telephone or what phone numbers they call.

Similarly, the Federal Communications Commission has said that mobile phone operators cannot censor what sites consumers visit on the Internet.

But the FCC said no rule governed what content the carriers could sponsor and sell themselves. Gene Kimmelman, senior director of Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, said the operators of telephone networks, while not stopping consumers from visiting sites over the Internet, were creating two tiers of access, then making their own value judgments about what content to include in the more accessible tier.

"It's an ominous trend away from a tradition of an open telephone network," he said.

The issue also comes about in a rapidly changing environment in terms of business, technology and politics. The operators, having saturated the market by selling phone service to most American adults, expect new revenue growth to come in large part from getting consumers to spend more money sending and receiving data.

Along with ring tones and screen savers, racy pictures and violent games are now part of that commercial equation. In Europe and Asia, mobile-phone users can readily download erotic images and even explicit videos to be watched on the tiny screens. In a study published this year, one major Nordic carrier reported that 40 percent of Internet searches were for sex-oriented content, according to Charles S. Golvin, a telecommunications industry analyst with Forrester Research.

Waat Media, a Los Angeles company that adapts images and video to mobile phone formats for Vivid Video, a major pornography-film company, said that 200,000 Europeans were downloading its content each month.

Playboy in Europe sells access to images and short video striptease acts. Randy Nicolau, president of distribution for the Playboy Entertainment Group, said he was surprised by the popularity.

"The most popular format is the eight-minute format," Nicolau said. "It just blows me away, given the screen size."

The service is providing a small but growing source of revenue for overseas phone operators, but industry analysts and executives expect that to change quickly.

"Adult content will be a nontrivial source of revenue going forward," Golvin said, noting that Asian carriers already are seeing significant contributions to sales.

This month, Playboy announced plans to develop its content for use on mobile phones in the United States. Nicolau said that the content would be less explicit than in Europe - featuring images of fully clothed Playboy models, for instance.

Already, some carriers are trying to demonstrate sensitivity to political mores while also satisfying consumer interest in sex-oriented content. For instance, while the major carriers Cingular, Verizon and Sprint said they did not offer sex-related content, all sold downloadable images of bikini models. Cingular subscribers can choose from dozens of images - including some of topless models who are covering their breasts with their arms - provided by Sports Illustrated.

Sprint offers a handful of images of bikini models from Sports Illustrated and Maxim. A company spokeswoman, Mary Nell Westbrook, acknowledged that the images may not look different from images of models provided by Playboy or a pornography-film company, but she added that Sprint did not plan to offer access to the racy brands.

"A Playboy brand or Penthouse brand - those do not meet our requirements," she said. "Sports Illustrated and Maxim do."

Whether even more of this muted content could catch on in the United States depends first on whether the carriers decide to make it available. Roger Entner, a telecommunications industry analyst with the Yankee Group, a technology market research and consulting firm, said he believed that carriers were reacting to the political climate.

"One of the biggest fears of the wireless carriers is that - with a more conservative United States - that the Southern Baptist conference or some such group would boycott them," he said.

Carriers are being similarly picky about what kind of video games they make available for download, according to industry executives. Matthew Bellows, a vice president for Gamespot.com, an online site that reviews video games, said he was aware of a number of instances in which phone companies had rejected games completely or told developers to modify a game if they wanted it considered for part of the menu offering.

"It's the Wal-Mart-ization effect," he said.

What they're saying

? "We're not going to offer adult content; we're not going to offer ultraviolent games. That is not compatible with the Cingular brand."

- Mark Siegel, spokesman for Cingular

? "A Playboy brand or Penthouse brand - those do not meet our requirements. Sports Illustrated and Maxim do."

- Mary Nell Westbrook, spokeswoman for Sprint

? "One of the biggest fears of the wireless carriers is that - with a more conservative United States - that the Southern Baptist conference or some such group would boycott them."

- Roger Entner, telecommunications industry analyst

? "The most popular format is the eight-minute format. It just blows me away, given the screen size."

- Randy Nicolau, president of distribution for the Playboy Entertainment Group
http://mas.scripps.com/DRMN/2005/01/16/431555863_e.jpg

Adi McAbian, managing director of Waat Media, which adapts images and video to mobile-phone formats for Vivid Video, holds a cell phone with an image of a woman that is available to phone subscribers, in his Tarzana, Calif., office last month. With functions such as sending e-mail and taking pictures, the mobile phone has turned into a portable minicomputer. But the operators of U.S. phone networks are resisting new services such as pornography and violent video games.
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