Nat Geo Mobilizes

Plans to Launch Mobile-Specific Site In October

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 9/4/2008 11:48:00 AM

National Geographic Ventures announced Thursday that it has formed a mobile division to deliver content, video programming and games to wireless phones, with a mobile content site set to launch in October.

National Geographic Mobile will be headed by general manager Aaron Kohn (pictured), who will oversee the strategic direction, technology advancement and marketing developments for all mobile initiatives.

Kohn also serves as vice president of corporate strategy and development for National Geographic Global and is responsible for the global development of new businesses and product strategy in support of its various business units. Before joining National Geographic, Kohn worked at Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and Fox, where he was responsible for product and business development and strategy for various units.

National Geographic's Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) site, slated to launch next month, will encompass content optimized for mobile devices, including categories such as news, green, images, music and videos.

In addition, the company said it will partner with mobile-media aggregator PlayPhone to develop a subscription-based service to provide downloads of wallpapers, ringtones, video and games to their phones.

“With the launch of National Geographic Mobile, we are pleased to partner with leading carriers and global handset manufacturers, aggregators and developers to share our library of award-winning photos, video and new properties,” said Ted Prince, chief operating officer of National Geographic Ventures, in a statement.

National Geographic said it will continue to license its library assets to a range of mobile handset manufacturers, aggregators, developers and carriers.