Mobile first, TV second

ESPN are leading the way in adapting content provisioning to the digital age by designing their website based on a 'mobile first' mentality. Forgetting about the content itself per se', this is a useful strategic insight for all content providers, especially those in emerging markets.

For the middle-income consumers mobiles tends to be a supplementary device amongst a clutter of other 'enabling technology' choices including laptops, pads, readers and even the humble television.

However in many parts of the world mobile phones are more prevalent that other device. Take Sub-Saharan Africa for example. Although the ownership of television sets is rising year on year, even if we look forward to 2017 it will still be the case that less than two-thirds of the population will actually own one. Yet mobile penetration is already above 50% and closer to 100% for all but a few African nations.

Part of the reason for the choice of mobiles above other devices will likely be wealth, however part of it is simply due to technology choice.

5 years ago Vodafone picked-up on the unique role that mobiles have in people's lives when they combined with other parties to introduce M-Pesa mobile payments. The system cleverly circumvented the unique bottlenecks hindering the the developing world (persons with no fixed address, poor record-keeping) which had previously impeded the growth of more traditional financial transactions based on debit and credit cards.

Back in the developed world things aren't all that different. Mobile phones have evolved well beyond 'supplementary' and now seen as utterly compulsory.

The message is clear - all around the globe we are moving towards a mobile-centric environment.

Most organisations are acutely aware of the importance of having an on-line presence. Even the local butcher now has a site. In the modern world if there is no home-page to review then you simply don't exist. Yet technology doesn't pause long and with the prevalence of Facebook and Twitter, presence in these forums is quickly becoming standard practice as well.

However behind all of this social networking noise it is important to recognise that mobile devices will be the enabler. We are moving towards a mobile-centric environment and businesses that base themselves around this core will be set to benefit.

ESPN is making sure we can enjoy its services on the small screen - customers need to be able to utilise your service as well.