More young people are using mobile TV, but a significant amount of usage is occurring at home and is cutting into traditional TV viewing time. That was the message to be delivered by Levi Shapiro, director of the Los Angeles operations of telecom and mobile media consumer research firm Telephia, at NATPE Mobile++ in Las Vegas on Jan. 15.

Shapiro was to speak at the one-day event devoted to the latest user trends in the mobile and digital worlds, which kicked off the NATPE TV market, Jan. 15-18.

‘We are releasing the wow statistics, such as how people are increasingly using mobile devices to not only talk on but also to download imagery, which demographic is using mobile the most and how people are using it,’ said Mark Greenspan, director of digital media at Achilles Media, the organizer of the Banff World Television Festival that this year signed on to oversee and program three-year-old NATPE Mobile++.

Mobile TV leads download types in revenue growth, expanding to $141 million in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2006, up from $51 million in the first quarter, with the number of mobile TV subscribers doubling in that period, according to Shapiro’s research. Some 26% of young people aged 18-24 consumed mobile video at home, while 19% did so while commuting. Looking at the 25-36 demo, 26% used mobile video while commuting and 21% in the home.

Neither Greenspan nor Raja Khanna, cofounder and chief creative officer of event sponsor QuickPlay Media, were concerned that NATPE Mobile++ would get lost in the shadow of the mobile show at the Consumer Electronics Show, held Jan. 8-11, also in Las Vegas.

‘CES is more product-focused, and NATPE Mobile is providing a wonderful snapshot of where mobile is going, especially in relationship to content production and content distribution,’ said Greenspan. ‘There are thousands and thousands of people at CES, and 700 people in the same room at NATPE Mobile, so it’s much more intimate.’

Khanna concurred. ‘It’s a slightly different crowd. CES is all consumer electronics, and NATPE is mobile and how it relates to television.’

NATPE Mobile++ was to open with Peter Cowley, director of interactive media with Endemol UK, discussing the mobile, gaming and interactive broadcast initiatives for such shows as Deal or No Deal, Get Close to the Sugar Babies and Big Brother. Other sessions were to include a look at the future of digital content through the world of advertising; producing for mobile; a case study of American Idol, which saw more Americans vote via phone for the show’s contestants than voted in the last U.S. election; as well as social networking and consumers as content producers.

User-created content is expanding, with currently as many as 20% of mobile subscribers creating and sharing content, according to another speaker, Will Hodgman, president of Seattle-based mobile market research firm M:Metrics. Ownership of camera phones has grown 70% over the past 12 months in the U.S., his data shows.

Ontario on Bollywood mission

Toronto-based Bitcasters was in India in mid-January in search of collaborators and distributors for Bollywood Tycoon, an Indian version of its online game Hollywood Tycoon. The mixed-media company that produces books, music videos, TV commercials, short films, games and websites, was among several new media companies on an Ontario government-sponsored trade mission to India.

‘This is the first time that Ontario’s entertainment and creative cluster is part of a government mission,’ says Ontario Minister of Culture Caroline Di Cocco. ‘This [was] a wonderful opportunity to promote Ontario’s dynamic new media sector abroad.’

Other participating companies are Toronto-based multi-platform TV producer Xenophile Media and web market research and interactive gaming company Phase 5/Flash Karma, along with representatives of the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the New Media Business Alliance.

The Jan. 14-21 business mission to India was set to include stops in New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai and Punjab.

iSummit on ICE

The Interactive Content Exchange, aka ICE 07, the renamed and expanded annual conference of the New Media Business Alliance, is set for March 21-22 at The Carlu in Toronto. The event, previously known as iSummit, is being billed as the ‘world’s coolest interactive content business event.’

‘The event will be more than a summit this year,’ says NMBA president Ian Kelso. ‘We wanted to establish an identity that communicated that this event is all about exchange in ideas, in models and in market activity.’

The expanded program emphasizes games, mobile content and digital social networks. The cost is $549, with a $150 savings for delegates who register before Feb. 14.

Smith finds online home

Four unaired episodes of Warner Bros.’ cancelled heist drama series Smith, starring Ray Liotta, will be streamed by CTV along with the previously broadcast first three episodes, which failed to garner high enough ratings for U.S. broadcaster CBS. The first of the unseen episodes premieres at CTV.ca on Jan. 25.

On Feb. 14, CTV will also make available four 10-minute audio podcasts from the producers that will tie up unfinished storylines.