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 As part of the new series of questions and answers with companies influencing the UK digital sports space, Sport and Technology interviewed mobile service provider Vodafone UK, the UK branch of the world's leading mobile network operator and sponsor of English Premier League soccer club, Manchester United, in the most expensive UK soccer sponsorship deal to date. At the time of writing, Vodafone had just signed a deal with Warner Brothers Online to bring entertainment content to its Vodafone Live! service.
How important is sport to Vodafone UK (what percentage of your turnover comes from sports-related services)?
"Sports content has always been one of the mainstays of our Vodafone Live! service. We have invested considerable time in ensuring that a range of content is available to our customers. At present we have deals with UEFA Champions League and Sky Sports, with FA Premier league content available at the start of next season. Evidently sport is also seen as important to our brand. We currently sponsor Ferrari F1, Manchester United, the England Cricket team, the Australian Rugby Team and the Derby."
Do you have a separate division for sports content and if so, how many people work in the sports team?
"We have a separate division of Vodafone UK looking specifically at content as a whole, in which there are sports specialists. It's not a matter of the volume of people working in the department, but the quality of the content provided to our customers. With high profile brands like those listed above, we believe we going a long way to meeting the needs of our customers."
 Please give any examples of sports deals that you have in place.
"As we mentioned earlier, deals are done regularly. The most high profile in the sports arena are, UEFA Champions league, Sky Sports, FA Premier league. But we also offer services such as 6ft offshore - giving customers the surf conditions around the UK. It not always about signing up the biggest names, whatever we do, it's always about offering services relevant to our customers."
Is your strategy to use sport to grow traffic to your services in general or to target certain demographics in particular?
"We're doing both. There will be those customers that buy a specific phone because they want access to the sports content, and those that treat it as a 'nice to have'. Vodafone Live! was designed to offer a range of services to meet all tastes. Sport is important to us, but not to the exclusion of our other customers. We're looking to grow the use of phones as more than just voice and text devices in all areas by offering a wide range of content."
What sorts of sports content do you think fans are most willing to pay for?
"It's not so much about the specific content, but more about the way it is delivered. Having said that, football [soccer] content has proven very popular to date. Whatever the content, so long as the services are delivered in a timely manner then they will be popular. Immediacy of information is the key. The fact that you carry your mobile with most of the time means that it's an ideal device to deliver timely information to. If we look at the mechanics of delivery we'd expect to see interest in video downloads, SMS (text) updates, News stories on Vodafone Live!, Premiership manager interviews etc."
 Do you have any views on which payment models best work for sports content on mobile services?
"When Vodafone Live! was launched we wanted to ensure that paying for services was as simple as possible - so we implemented a system that allowed customers to have charges place directly on their bill (or deducted from their 'Pay as you talk' account). This means that the hassle of subscriptions is immediately eliminated. When it comes to customers deciding how they'd like to consume the information they're given an option. Either pay a one off fee for the specific content, or pay a fee for a weekly/monthly subscription. Our view is that as long as it's easy to pay, customers will use the services."
How do you see your sports offerings evolving?
"Our offering will evolve in line with the increased capabilities of the mobile handsets and the mobile network. You'll start to see much richer video coming in a few months. Evidently, when our 3G network launches, the possibilities of what we can offer our customers increase rapidly."
In your personal opinion, which factor do you think will have the greatest impact on the roll-out or uptake mobile sports services within the UK over the next few years?
"Mobile is all about delivering a specific service to a specific person - the one with the phone in their hand. As long as we have access to good quality content and can deliver it in a timely manner and in the format the customer wants, we'll see great uptake of these types of services." The next Q&A will feature Anthony Sheehan of PacketVideo
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