Monetizing BPL Through Channels, Not Contents

Learning from Barclay Premiere League, an Exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights on Sports Content “Send BPL to 7879 to subscribe for BPL update, live score, players update, Win a chance to see BPL live match.” This is how the premium SMS advertised. It gathers literally thousands of subscribers to get daily updates on Barclay Premiere League digital content. But this is hardly represent the potential of digital content licensing. Understanding the Rights IP exploitation can be separated into various rights, such as consumer products rights, publishing rights, media rights and digital rights. Media rights is sold through TV channels, while publishing rights is sold to publishers. These two rights the key driver for a property to be known by consumers. Some successful sports content are FIFA World Cup, Barclay Premiere League and NBA. Notable characters content are from Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. After the media and publishing, comes the consumer products rights. Licensing for this consumer products rights is based on article list, like apparel, toys, foods and many others. This is the most lucrative licensing since every merchandise will pay a certain minimum guarantee to the IP rights holder and additional royalty if the licensee is interested to add more items to be produced. Last but not least is the digital content licensing. Usually the content provider will license the rights then sold the content through telecommunication provider to distribute quizzes, wallpaper, ring back tones and rich content. Exploiting the Rights Mojopia, the content aggregator for Telkom group is the official mobile licensee for BPL. A licensee have to be creative in exploit the rights. As a licensor, BPL concern is protecting the content, in which Mojopia granted the right to distribute images and rich content through digital media. Based on this content, the access to market then becomes very limited since it can only be distributed through telco channel like SMS premium and interactive menu. SMS and ring back tone are the backbone revenue generator on telco channels. Other potential is creating games based on this property, distributed through WAP site or ODP (on device portal). Instead of relying on contents, it’s a lot better to monetize through various channels. Each family of handset like iPhone, Blackberry and Android, each has become its own distribution channels through their apps store. By bundling the contents with handset, they are able to sell the phone with value added content and application. By bundling phone starter pack or top up with content, enables telco to retain customer and increasing their spending on the phone. Some more creative ideas can be used by providing a digital coupon on mobile as a loyalty for brands. By collecting digital contents, it can become a qualifier for reward purchase or purchase by purchase that once popularize in a retail environment. Be creative when exploiting the digital rights. Don’t rely solely on content and explore various channels!