1. Executive Summary
1.1 Defining video ringtones
1.2 Why is the mobile industry looking at videotones?
1.2.1 Personalisation
1.2.2 Declining revenues from traditional ringtones
1.2.3 Music industry involvement
1.3 Current ringtone landscape
1.4 Challenges for videotones
2. Introduction
2.1 The success of ringtones
2.1.1 A brief history of ringtones
Figure 2.1: Evolution of mobile music services
2.1.1.1 Ringtone boost to traditional music sector
Chart 2.1: UK ringtone and CD single revenue comparison, 2005
Chart 2.2: Korean ringtone and CD single revenue comparison, 2004
Chart 2.3: World music market by market share, 2005
2.1.2 Personalisation is key to ringtone success
2.1.3 Ringtone types
2.1.3.1 Monophonic ringtones
2.1.3.2 Polyphonic ringtones
2.1.3.3 Realtones
Table 2.1: Royalty payment requirements for ringtones
2.1.3.3.1 Covertones
2.1.3.4 Voicetones
2.1.3.5 Ringback tones
2.1.3.6 Videotones
2.1.4 Ringtone revenues
2.1.4.1 Ringtone market share
Chart 2.4: US ringtone market composition by percentage of revenue share, Q3 2005 and Q2 2006
2.1.4.2 Current ringtone revenues
Chart 2.5: Global ringtone market value, 2005 and 2006
2.1.4.2.1 Appeal of ringtones for the mobile and music industries
Chart 2.6: Typical cost of music download, full track versus ringtone
2.2 Methodology
2.3 Focus of this report
3. Current landscape
3.1 Drivers for videotones
3.1.1 Demand for personalisation
Chart 3.1: Percentage increases in revenues from applications allowing personalisation of handsets between 2005 and 2007
3.1.2 Traditional ringtone revenues will decline
Chart 3.2: Traditional ringtone revenue forecast, 2006-2011
Chart 3.3: US monophonic and polyphonic ringtone revenues, 2005 and 2009
3.1.2.1 Increased value from videotones
Chart 3.4: Cost of ringtones, voicetones and videotones on Bell Mobility, highest and lowest available cost, Q3 2006 in $ Canadian
Chart 3.5: Orange UK, ringtone versus videotone download price
3.2 Japanese experience
3.2.1 Japan and Chaku-Motion
3.2.1.1 Record label importance for Real and Videotones
Chart 3.6: Label Mobile dominance of the Chaku-Uta market illustrated by percentage of the total market, 2006
3.2.1.2 Chaku-Motion
Chart 3.7: Japanese ringtone market revenues, percentage share by ringtone type, 2006
3.2.1.2.1 Chaku-Motion and digital rights
3.2.2 KDDI and Time Warner Bundling
Table 3.1: WAMO Pack contents
3.3 Videotone activity outside Japan
3.3.1 North American deployments
3.3.1.1 Sprint
Table 3.2: Sprint Handsets supporting Video Ringers
3.3.1.1.1 Sprint outsourcing deal
3.3.1.2 Bell Canada
3.3.2 European deployment example
3.3.2.1 Telefonica
Chart 3.8: MoviStar Espana ringtone pricing
3.3.2.1.1 Telefonica deal with Musiwave
3.3.3 Videotone potential in the Indian Market
Chart 3.9: Daily ringtone downloads in India, Q4 2005-Q2 2006
Chart 3.10: Videotones as a percentage of total ringtone sales in India, 2006-2009
3.3.3.1 Hutchison Essar Videotones
3.4 Other videotone enablers
3.4.1 Nokia
3.4.1.1 Nokia and Time Warner
3.4.2 Palm
Image 3.1: Treo 750v
3.4.3 Jamba
3.4.3.1 Jamba and News Corp
Chart 3.11: Jamba revenues in $ millions, 2004-2006
3.4.4 Content providers
3.4.4.1 Musiwave and Actimagine
3.4.4.2 Bounce Technology
3.4.4.3 Toysoft
3.4.4.4 Munditone
3.4.4.5 SmartphoneWare
3.5 Challenges for videotones
3.5.1 Licensing and publishing fees for music
3.5.2 Competition to original videotones
Chart 3.12: User generated content usage as a percentage of total mobile subscribers, 2006-2011
3.5.3 Lack of suitable handsets
Chart 3.13: Video playing handsets forecast, 2006-2011
Table 3.3: Handsets available in Europe that support videotones
3.4.4 Operating system issues
3.4.5 Importance of sound
3.5 Current landscape conclusion
4. Future strategy
4.1 Videotones’ potential due to the popularity of personalisation
4.2 How should videotones be priced?
4.2.1 The network cost
Chart 4.1: Cost per MByte for different network technologies
Table 4.1: Profit per videotone after subtracting network costs
4.2.2 Increased production costs due to licensing
4.2.3 Pricing
Chart 4.2: Average cost comparison of a full music download and videotone, North America and Europe
4.2.4 Music bundling
4.2.4.1 Videotones as promotional work
4.3 Revenue share from videotones
Chart 4.3: Revenue breakdown for a standard ringtone
Table 4.2: Typical revenue breakdown from a standard ringtone in Europe
Table 4.3: Expected revenue share from videotones
4.4 Target demographic for videotones
Chart 4.4: Age group breakdown for the top five US ringtones in 2005 by percent of downloads from each age group
4.5 Sales channels for videotones
4.6 Non-music videotones
4.6.1 Adult videotones
Chart 4.5: Mobile adult content revenue forecast, 2006-2011
4.5.2 User generated videotones
4.5.3 Sporting content
Table 4.4: Liverpool FC Mobile Services
4.5.4 Film and TV clips
4.5.5 Made for mobile videotones
4.5.5.1 Animated videotones
4.6 Conclusion
Figure 4.1: Videotones SWOT Analysis
Chart 4.6:
5. Conclusions and recommendations
5.1 Conclusions
5.2 Recommendations
5.2.1 For operators
5.2.2 For content providers
5.2.3 For handset manufacturers
5.2.4 For the music industry
Appendix A
Lead author’s profile
Appendix B
About visiongain
Appendix C
Visiongain report evaluation form