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Would you tell us a bit about your company? With our comprehensive Olympic coverage, we have the most complete sports content offering in the wireless world! We offer the largest premium content package on the WAP market for live event scores, stats, standings, and total event coverage. Our goal is to make it easy for anyone, anywhere in the world to get to follow his or her favorite team in any sport. One stop shopping for the world sports fan is our number one focus. In September, we will offer the following sports with complete coverage (meaning real time scores, stats, stories, headlines, odds, weather and more): NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, LPGA, men's and women's tennis, auto racing, NCAA football and basketball, world soccer, cricket, and rugby. In addition to major sports, we also have the minor ones that can be sent via SMS with images for those who want them. We offer everything in color, both text and pictures with a Java and in WAP, WML, WAP Push and SMS. We are promotion crazy and we are willing to work with anyone from other developers to operators to get them exactly what they want, how they want it. We always invite developers and carries to talk to us about working together, as it is the key to success in the content world! How did SportsFeed get started? We were one of the first developers to sign with Unwired Planet over seven years ago. There was no doubt to us that the future in wireless was very bright and as Unwired Planet became Openwave, we continued to push and hang with wireless even through the hard times. As operators struggled to figure out the technology, we were always there, going through the growing pains with Openwave and the operators. But at the end of the day, we were sold the idea that one day this would pay off for all of us. And it has. What advice do you have with regard to submitting services to the operators? Be flexible, and if at all possible, forge alliances with other content providers to make the content package complete. One of our most successful strategies is partnering: we get feeds from over eight content providers from all over the world. We have a very close and very good relationship with each of them. Together we make a solid "one stop shop" for operators and end users. Standing alone, you are simply one more voice in a very large crowd. The last and most important point: know your audience! You must be able to make a case that your service is worthy of being carried on a telco's menu and be able to back it up with numbers and facts. How do you drive users to your content? We use our web site and a great deal of promotion from radio and TV stations to the operators themselves. What makes them come back for more? Simple. Quality content and ease of access: that will keep them coming back. Give the customer what they want and they will always come back. What is it about sports news that appeals to mobile users? Scores are the most important things and that is why we have so much live coverage. Next up would be stats and player information. There is a billion dollar Fantasy Sports industry and people want player information to help them play their games. Odds are a close third. We would be silly not to acknowledge the huge number of people that bet on sports; it's a multi-billion dollar industry. Odds and detailed stats give the end user a leg up when they are betting. How has Openwave helped you succeed? Openwave has offered a wonderful group of people to work with. As I have said, we have been with them since day one, so there has not been anything that Openwave has delivered that we haven't tried. Openwave has some of the best tech people on the planet working with them and their content development people are awesome. If I sound a bit biased, I am. I have been very proud to work hand-in-hand with Openwave for so long and I know it will continue to be a long and wonderful relationship. What's next for SportsFeed? In September SportsFeed will take the final step to go global with all of our sports. We want provide global subscribers with a one-stop place to access the best and most up-to-date sports information. We feel that we can do that with our commitment to the "total coverage" concept. Our goal is to deliver branded, quality content with the ability for our customers to access all the information they want about any major sport played on the planet. Email Jim Williams at SportsFeed or call him in Washington DC at 202-244-4393. |