Shooting for a Bigger Audience on the Smaller Screen

Discovery Aims to Escape the Confines of the Television With Video Tailored for Cellphones

Shera Jenne of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring edits archival footage of the "World's Ugliest Dog Competition" for use on the Internet and possibly on cellphones. (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

You can learn a lot from your cellphone.

You can find out the probability of being killed by a shark (less than by a bee), the best dog breed for you and renegade chef Anthony Bourdain's favorite music: "Any Rolling Stones song on the subject of drugs."

The question is, do you want to know any of this?

Executives at Discovery Communications Inc. think you do.

Applying lessons learned in markets overseas, the Silver Spring cable television programmer is ramping up its mobile video offerings in the United States, joining other entertainment companies in the quest to follow audiences wherever they go.

Where Fox's mobile entertainment group has created "mobisodes" for its hit shows "24" and "Prison Break," and Comedy Central has amused audiences with snippets of stand-up routines, Discovery Communications' service will fill the small screens with its own mix of facts, travel news and bloody animal fights.

"The mobile environment is the perfect fit for what Discovery does. . . . From travel to health to fun facts and great video about the world," said Donald A. Baer, senior executive vice president for strategy and development.

The official and broader debut of Discovery Mobile later this year is the cable company's latest attempt to push beyond the confines of the television tube. It has built a consumer Internet strategy around Cosmeo, a Web-based video study tool it is selling to schools and families. It has recently cut deals with iTunes and Google Earth, acquired a company that specializes in audio tours for museums worldwide, and launched three Web-only channels, with two more in the works. An online store for cellphone ring tones and wallpaper opened this month.

Privately owned by Discovery Holding Co., Cox Communications Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications Inc. and founder and Chairman John S. Hendricks, Discovery was among the early developers of basic cable and digital channels and is trying to be among the first to exploit the potential of mobile video in the United States, a market still in its infancy. Market research firm NDP Group Inc. estimated in April that 20 percent of U.S. cellphones can support mobile video, but only 1 percent of subscribers have mobile video service.

Companies such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and Cingular Wireless LLC have begun offering video clips and programs streamed live for a monthly fee of $5 to $10 a month, on top of the cost of basic wireless phone service. Premium channels, such as ESPN, can cost an extra $5 a month.

Projections of how many Americans are likely to adopt mobile video vary wildly. Market analysis firm Jupiter Research recently estimated that the number of regular users of mobile video would grow to about 12 million by 2010. Another firm, Informa Telecoms & Media, projected that the number of U.S. consumers who watch some kind of video on a cellphone would rise from 1 million to 3 million by 2009.

Consulting firm Bain & Co. estimates that mobile content will grow from a $1.7 billion market to $16 billion over 10 years, with video making up more than a quarter of that.