Genie strikes content deal with C4 and MTV

Genie, BT’s mobile Internet service, has signed deals with Channel 4 and MTV to provide games and music news over the Web and WAP-enabled mobile phones.

Genie will develop mobile phone games based on programmes broadcast on digital entertainment channel E4. Players will be able to access the games through WAP phones on Genie.co.uk by clicking on an E4 button. Players then choose which game they would like to play.

The first game available will be based on Banzai, a Japanese-style betting show where users bet on the outcome of bizarre challenges.

Genie vice-president Jim Ryan says: “Our customers are early adopters of mobile technology and E4’s viewers are early digital TV adopters. They are young, brand-savvy and these games will really appeal.”

Genie has also signed an exclusive deal with music channel MTV to provide content on its multi-access portal. An MTV WAP and Internet service, giving users access to the latest pop news and gossip, will be launched in spring this year. Advertising on MTV and the Genie site will back the launch of the service.

Registered users will be able to listen to MTV’s Daily Edition and vote in Video Clash, a recently launched interactive show on MTV.

MTV UK head of strategy and business development Odette Albani says: “MTV is committed to technological innovation and by partnering with the best companies in the business, we can deliver the latest in cutting edge music through a variety of media.”

Recommended

Capital use of a Red anthem

Marketing Week

Is it the Diary’s imagination, or is someone at Leo Burnett having a laugh at McDonald’s expense? The ad created by the agency for the food giant’s Italian burger features a song called Bella Ciao – an anthem of the Italian Communist Party. What with McDonald’s buying a stake in Pret a Manger, with its […]