As mobile operators move to offer flat-rate data services to drive more usage, one knock-on effect has been that content owners are also giving more time to mobile. An item in NMA notes that the UK’s major broadcasters—the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV—are all ramping up their mobile strategies. Matthew Postgate, BBC’s controller of mobile: “Restrictions and costs have been the biggest barrier until now. The dropping of data charges is what we’ve all been waiting for. It will mean another iteration of what we’ve been doing.” The biggest issue for the BBC has been how to design programming for new platforms without compromising its public service mandate: in the past, high charges for mobile data megabytes would have meant media-rich services that could have been too cost-prohibitive to the population at large. Accessibility has been one of the thornier issues surrounding the BBC’s launch of its iPlayer on-demand service.

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Channel 4 recently hired Ben Lister away from MTV to be its new head of mobile business development. He’s working with a number of vendors including Minick and Que Pasa to enrich the broadcaster’s mobile site. Meanwhile, ITV is also planning to develop a series of portals around specific programs like the Rugby World Cup.

No mention of how much money any of these broadcasters intend to invest in their mobile platforms, or of timescales for new rollouts.