Warner Music to soar into Koreans’ cellphones
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Warner is moving from its traditional business domains into the online business. Remember, it started last year in December when it was the first major music label to hook up with Skype. Today, Warner signed a deal with SK Telecom, the South Korean mobile operator also known for Helio, its joint-venture with Earthlink.
Of course, this partnership is another step into media convergence, where music is no only downloaded on computers but also on cellphones, and ringtones ranks among the most popular forms of music consumption. But on each side, there’s kind of urgency to get into the mobile music market.
With this deal, SK Telecom is closing an important series of moves into mobile services and content. Helio will certainly grab some valuable synergies. The most obvious is that the MVNO could better hook up MySpace members with Madonna’s, Green Day’s or James Blunt’s songs.
“From Warner’s point of view, this is another step in securing digital delivery channels,” said Lee Shihoon, an analyst at Hyundai Securities to Reuters. But there’s another reason, a bigger one:
“Time Warner Inc.’s cable unit on Wednesday said it was considering bidding, along with three other cable operators, for licenses to offer wireless services in a move that would put them squarely on cellular operators’ turf,” reported Reuters.
Four companies, Time Warner Cable, Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and Advance/Newhouse Communications, are making together the move into the wireless world via a joint mobile partnership with Sprint Nextel.
And that, could really explain the deal. What do you think?
May 10, 2006 | By Nuno
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