In a sign of growing interest in mobile video entertainment, 20th Century Fox Television has announced the creation of Fox Mobile Entertainment, a venture to develop a new generation of content for cell phones and other portable wireless devices. It provides yet another way to extract value from existing content.
Lucy Hood, senior vice president of content and marketing for News Corp., has been named president of the mobile unit. Previously she was general manager of TV Guide’s Sneak Prevue Channel, senior vice president of entertainment for the News Corp./iGuide Internet Group and vice president of marketing/new ventures for FX.
The 20th Century Fox studio has already created and distributed four series and 100 “mobisodes,” one-minute episodes designed for transmission over cell phones. Titles include “24: Conspiracy” and “Simple Life: Interns.”
Fox Mobile Entertainment also manages the phone-in voting system used by “American Idol.”