Utada, MTV pin hopes on mobile content service Flux

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Utada, MTV pin hopes on mobile content service Flux

Steve McClure / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Superstar Hikaru Utada is being featured in what MTV claims is the world's first mobile phone-based music-video series.

The series, comprising animated clips based on songs from Utada's 2004 English-language album, Exodus, will be available via MTV Networks' new Flux service, which it calls "the world's first mobile entertainment community." Flux is being launched in Japan today and in other markets worldwide in the coming months.

Flux will be available via telecom operator KDDI for a monthly fee of 315 yen. MTV says deals with other operators will be announced in the future.

The service will deliver entertainment and music content via mobile and online networks to consumers in Japan. Flux subscribers will be able to access short videos and music through their mobiles or computers, make recommendations to others and provide feedback.

"I really wanted to do this," said Utada at a recent press conference at which the new service was launched. "There are lots of different possibilities. Kids have such an amazing relationship with their mobiles, and I'm happy that my fans will be able to hear my music in this cool, new animated setting."

Utada evidently hopes that her deal with MTV/Flux will revive interest in Exodus, which sold relatively poorly in the United States. The album is due to be released in Europe this autumn, according to industry sources.

Utada appeared at the press conference with her father-producer, Teruzane Utada, and animator Koji Morimoto, who will be creating the clips based on Exodus tracks that will be available exclusively on Flux.

Bill Roedy, vice chairman of MTV Networks and president of MTV Networks International, says it's time for MTV to shift its priorities from television to digital media.

"The launch of Flux symbolizes the importance of digital media to MTVN's future and is our biggest international investment in this sector to date," Roedy said. "Asia is the driver of our digital strategy," Roedy said. "And with our global network we are in a unique position to harness the creative energy that exists here in Japan, and we will take that to the rest of the world. Technology has changed our lives, and Japan has been a clear leader. We will launch Flux in other markets and are uniquely positioned to share Japanese content innovations with the rest of the world through our global network."

MTV says Flux will be aimed at 13 to 34-year-olds. Content will include original video and animation productions from leading Japanese creators, such as Lightman, a superhero who battles against the forces of evil, and Hanamoski, a series of clips starring an elephant with a very long trunk.

Japanese short-form entertainment available on Flux will include Polygon Family, a computer graphic fantasy animation based on a video game; Perestroika, a comedy blending traditional Japanese comic monologues with a mixture of puppets and animation; and Sguy and the Family Stone, a slapstick flash animation series.

International programming from MTV will also be available, including Dirty Sanchez and Gutterpups. And fans of wacky subaqueous cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants will be able to view their hero's adventures on Flux. Until now, SpongeBob has only been viewable in Japan on MTV's Nickelodeon channel.

Clips will be available on the mobile service in episodes lasting one to three minutes, with lengthier content available through the Flux Web site (www.fluxnet.jp), which will be launched this autumn. Also available on Flux will be chakuuta (master ring tunes for mobile phones) from several Japanese record labels.

MTV says Flux can help promote Japanese music overseas once the service is available in other countries.

"Japanese pop culture now has more influence worldwide than it did 20 years ago," said Tony Elison, senior vice president-general manager of digital media at Viacom International Japan--MTV's parent company. "That's the biggest reason we want to start Flux in Japan."

Elison noted that the number of subscribers to 3G third-generation mobile phones in Japan is rising every month.

"There are 30 million 3G subscribers in Japan now," Elison said. "In three years, that's expected to rise to 80 million." Elison says MTV would like to sign up the "bulk" of those 3G users to Flux, but says MTV has no specific estimate of how many will do so.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features...30TDY14003.htm