Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 211

"The smaller aperture of the lid has been designed to prevent hedgehogs from entering the McFlurry container in the unfortunate incidence that the lid is littered."

Well, thank God for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society who have forced fat food 'restaurant' McDonalds to redesign its cups after several instances of hedgehogs getting stuck and starving to death while trying to eat leftover ice cream. Blimey, isn't that just like how Elvis Presley died?

McDonalds' ridiculous statement is yet another example of corporate statements that purport to put that company in a positive light, but render it somewhat risible. This seemed to be reiterated earlier this week when New Media Age's Justin Pearse reported that Vodafone believed mobile TV was already more successful than ringtones.

What, are you insane? But hang on, maybe it's not so mental after all. Apparently, more than half of all new 3G customers sign up to Vodafone's mobile TV service and usage levels are exceeding the one million streams a month it saw during its initial free trial. Mmm, nice.

If Vodafone say they're making more money out of mobile TV than ringtones, then we have to believe them, and it is heartening news for those of us who have been banging on about how quickly mobile TV is likely to be adopted. I signed up about six months ago for £5 per month so I could ruin my eyesight looking at the latest football results on Sky Sports. And it's very unlikely I will ever unsubscribe.

But is it just going to be traditional TV channels that will be successful on mobile? Earlier this week I went through more than 250 entries for the mobile TV and video awards at next month's MIPCOM event in Cannes. While the made-for-mobile and repurposed mobile categories were much the same as last year, the mobile channels entries were formidable.

Some were better than others and I'm bound by secrecy not to mention names until the nominees are announced, but it takes something special to jolt you when you've looked at so many entries. Suffice to say, one of the short films channels was utterly brilliant, moving, beautiful and uplifting.

Short films on mobile work perfectly and hopefully an arthouse mobile TV genre will emerge in much the same way as independent cinema. That is a very good thing because you can bang on about hedgehogs, McDonalds and Sky Sports, but there's nothing like being reminded there's more to life than just football results.