WITH MOBILE phones slowly taking over various forms of electronic items in the entertainment segment, television is not the only medium via which people are accessing videos. With medium-range and smart phones becoming increasingly common, online platforms like YouTube have become direct competitors for viewing videos - be it of movie clips, music videos, sports or news.

According to data released by a mobile video company, promos of films like The Dirty Picture were the most viewed by mobile video users. However, the ‘soup song’ Kolaveri Di that struck viral gold managed to gather only 56,000 views whereas the same song sung by Sony Nigam’s son Nevaan Nigam gathered more than three lakh views, as reported by The Hindu Business Line on Wednesday.

With mobile videos emerging as television on the move, the fall of TRPs must be really giving the channel heads the worst nightmares. Earlier, there used to be a time when movie trailers were hugely awaited on television, and the channels, too, earned their bit of revenue. But with technology surging at such breakneck speed, the film industry has now shifted to viral promotions and screening of their movies as they are cost-effective and reaches maximum number of people, which is mostly helped by word of mouth marketing.

Commenting on the current trends, Salman Hussain, Vuclip's Vice-President, Business Development and Managing Director, India & West Asia, told Hindi Business Line that, “Findings of our year-ender trend analysis for India re-affirm our belief that viewers here love Bollywood and regional cinema. However, the astounding 24 lakh mobile video views for the tsunami in Japan show that in today's networked world, geographies melt away while sending wishes to fellow brethren in any part of the globe.” 

He further added that, “These trends also hold great lessons for mobile content providers and marketers — videos with a strong visual element typically generate more interest among mobile users.”