Toyota Fox Make A Break For Mobile

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Toyota, Fox Make A Break For Mobile

By: David Utter
2006-04-24

A deal rumored to be worth about $10 million will hook up Toyota's advertising of a new subcompact sedan with Fox's series "Prison Break."

Toyota, Fox Make A Break For Mobile

Major Internet portals and content companies all have designs upon wireless phone customers, so it's worth looking in on the network providers and handset makers. For News Corp (NWS.A), its Fox Television network becomes one of those content providers.

Fox and Toyota will deliver mobile episodes, or "mobisodes," of the series "Prison Break" to viewers. The Wall Street Journal reported the pair plan to announce the deal today.

Toyota's participation, which will have 10-second commercials aired before each episode, marks an attempt to match a younger demographic with ads for its 2007 Yaris model. The low-cost subcompact debuts this year, and Toyota hopes to spur demand by building awareness with the Fox deal.

Customers on the Sprint network will be able to view the mobisodes of "Prison Break: Proof of Innocence" starting this week. In other news, Sprint's (S), purchase of UbiquiTel (UPCS) gives Sprint about 8.3 million more customers, scattered among states in the Midwest and the West.

The purchase also brings an end to a lawsuit UbiquiTel filed against Sprint after the Nextel deal. UbiquiTel sued because the Sprint and Nextel agreement removed UbiquiTel's exclusive deal to sell Sprint services in its markets.

Nokia (NOK) reported 29 percent net sales growth for for the first quarter of 2006. The company had $11.7 billion in sales for the period, compared to $9.1 billion for the same time last year, and earnings per share of 31 cents.

In the US, Nokia nearly doubled its sales. Globally, the company moved 75.1 million units in the quarter. They now own 35 percent of the world's market share of mobile phones.

Motorola (MOT) ranks behind Nokia in the mobile market. They announced an increase of 23 percent in sales for $10.01 billion for the quarter.

Earnings per share of 27 cents felt the impact of stock-based compensation expenses. Also, the company's network segment was down 14 percent compared with 1Q 2005. Motorola shipped 46.1 million units in the period.

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Tags: Toyota, Fox, Sprint, Nokia, Motorola

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About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for InternetFinancialNews and WebProNews covering technology and business.


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