Ted Prince, COO of National Geographic Ventures (NGV) and executive vice president of operations for National Geographic Global (NGGM), today announced the formation of National Geographic Mobile to extend the company’s core mission via mobile programming and games. Aaron Kohn will lead the global rollout of the division, serving as general manager, and will oversee the strategic direction, technology advancement and marketing developments for all National Geographic mobile initiatives. Kohn also serves as vice president of corporate strategy & development for NGGM and is responsible for the global development of new businesses and product strategy in support of NGGM’s various business units.
"With the launch of National Geographic Mobile, we are pleased to partner with leading carriers and global handset manufacturers, aggregators and developers to share our library of award-winning photos, video and new properties. This is a great opportunity for us to leverage our wonderful assets and feed the growing demand from consumers who are looking for compelling, rich media content on their cell phones and for us to extend our mission globally," said Prince. "In addition, Aaron’s expertise in business development and interactive entertainment coupled with his current role at NGGM will be a terrific resource for business partners seeking entertaining video, music, images and games designed for the mobile platform."
National Geographic will continue to license its library assets to a wide range of mobile handset manufacturers, aggregators, developers and carriers. Launching in October, National Geographic’s Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) site will encompass all content optimized for mobile, including categories such as news, green, images, music and videos. All content will tie closely to features from National Geographic’s award-winning magazines and Channel.
National Geographic will soon partner with PlayPhone to drive mobile content distribution online. The subscription-based service will allow consumers to download National Geographic wallpapers, ringtones, video and games through their personal computers to their phones.
