3UK and O2 are merging their look-alike user generated content TV download services into one brand entity. 3UK's SeeMeTV and O2's LookAtMeTV services will be merged into one brand, called eyevibe.
The plan is to evolve the services from their current TV download models into fully functioning mobile communities, with chat, messaging, user profiles, tagging and search functionality.
To do that, 3UK and O2, and YoSpace, the Bauer subsidiary and technical services provider that owns the brand, decided that they would have more success if they combined their communities, and made the service open to all mobile users.
Jane Wilding, lead product manager for social networking, 3, said, "The way forward for mobile communities in the mobile space is to be open and accessible for all. I don't know why we thought a community will work when users can only communicate with each other on the same network – it doesn't make much sense."
There don't look to be any current plans in place for other operators to become partners of YoSpace in the way 3 and O2 have, although users of other networks will be able to access the service, albeit they will have to pay the data charges to do so, as well as the 10p download charge. 3 and O2 users will have the download cost included in their 10p download price.
Dave Springall, cto of YoSpace, which was bought by Emap which was then in turn bought by Bauer, said that the new service would have moderated chat capability, as well as tagging, searchable profiles and all the usual social media functionality.
At the moment the services are being merged from a technical point of view, and YoSpace expects to have the new, merged service up and running after a month, he added..
O2's John Talbot said that users would see dual messaging on the portal for a while, alerting them to the fact that the change was coming. And he
Bauer has committed £1.2 million advertising spend across its radio, online and print products to the promotion of the service.
Chris Lawson, Bauer's digital marketing director, said that would be real money in high profile slots and spaces, rather than merely free fillers for "3am radio ads we can't sell".
In the long term, Lawson confirmed that Bauer plans to sell ads into eyevibe, and obviously building identifiable communities within the service will help it do that.
Clearly there's a threat to the mobile space from the likes of YouTube, and what Google plans to do with it in the mobile space. But O2's Talbot pointed out that the mobile operators have the bonus of proven monetization for users, paying out 10% to contributors of successful videos.
Clearly, there is a mixed message from the operators here, on the one hand claiming great success for the UGC TV services, but on the other admitting that if they didn't open out, they were unlikely to succeed as mobile communities. They would argue, perhaps rightly, that this change marks a shift from video download services to actual mobile communities built around the creation and sharing of video.