Will mobile phones kill the TV station?

That’s a question one can’t help but ask Patrick Parodi, CMO of mobile advertising solutions provider, Amobee. As chairman and global board director of the Mobile Entertainment
Forum , Parodi loves to play the role of evangelist, telling mobile operators to turn into a media company. In an interview with ET, the messiah of mobile entertainment and marketing speaks at length on how mobile operators are probably close to missing the bus, the lessons they could learn from the commoditisation of internet service providers (ISPs). And, of course, the fate of the TV station.


Mobile marketing is largely tactical or promotion-led , and is rarely part of a long-term strategy. Is the mobile useful only as a shortterm marketing tool?


To a great extent, mobile marketing is being used as a direct marketing tool for lead generation and as a push model. That’s going to change. We are going to see mobile more as a media option where the user becomes the centre of the medium. That’s largely happening because of the advancement in handsets like the iPhone, or what others like Nokia, HTC and Google’s Android platform are doing. From our perspective, the operator is in the centre of the wireless ecosystem. But they have a big job ahead in accelerating their networks to become media companies.