Premium SMS a third of mobile content revenue

According to the latest Telephia Premium SMS Report, Premium SMS revenues totaled more than 273 million, making up 32% of mobile content revenue in Q1. This report includes content purchased via premium SMS from off-portal storefronts as well as premium text messaging services, like voting/sweepstakes and chat.

Download purchases paid for via premium SMS (at off-portal storefronts) totaled nearly 215 million, accounting for 79% of premium SMS revenue. These off-portal storefront purchases include content such as ringtones and horoscopes. Voting/sweepstakes entries generated more than 35 million, reported The Center for Media Research. While voting/sweepstakes entries generated only 13% of total revenues for premium SMS transactions, they represented 47% of premium SMS volume, equaling more than 34 million transactions.

Said Kanishka Agarwal, vice president of mobile media, Telephia: "Premium text messaging continues to be an additional way to reach consumers directly...  (with) a healthy slice of the mobile content market, accounting for an off-portal share of 32%... marketers are experimenting beyond the standard rate SMS voting pioneered by American Idol and tapping into premium SMS with voting/sweepstakes campaigns. NBC's Deal or No Deal has translated into a premium SMS hit, generating nearly half of the volume and revenue of voting/sweepstakes entries in the first quarter of 2007."

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