NDTV Active, the mobile portal from NDTV Convergence, has tied up with Hovr for free ad-supported mobile games. For Hovr, this is the second such deal they have done - the first was with Indiatimes for 58888. The NDTV Games section currently offers around 102 games, 60 of which were supported by my handset - Nokia N95. The page for the Gaming section had horizontal scrolling - not a recommended practice for the mobile (or the Internet, for that matter)
I just downloaded and installed Freecell from the portal, and the application is branded as Hovr; surprisingly, it doesn’t have an NDTV logo/branding, just a mention - “Welcome NDTV1010″, which would appear odd to a user who’s just downloaded what he perceives as an NDTV game.
As is the case with Hovr’s service, the monetization is via advertising - every time a user loads a game, an advertisement is downloaded to the phone, and displayed before the game launches. In case of Freecell, a splash screen displayed an advertisement for the “University of Phoenix”. Incidentally, the user pays the data charges for the download of the ad, and the game doesn’t work if the ad isn’t downloaded. That becomes a problem if there are GPRS connectivity issues.
Most such deals are revenue share deals. So far, Hovr has a deal with Indiatimes and NDTV, Greystripe used to have a deal with ABP (does it still?) and Zapak has launched a mobile games site.
Related: Zapak Goes Mobile With Zapak.mobi; Turn Based Games
Gaming, Greystripe, Hovr, NDTV Convergence
Tags:
freecell,
Gaming,
GPRS,
greystripe,
Hovr,
India,
mjoy4free,
Mobile,
mobile gaming,
NDTV,
Zapak
