MediaKey Incorporated, a licensed Microsoft Windows Media Digital Rights Management (DRM) solution and service provider, has partnered with global phone-billing specialist PasswordByPhone to provide billing by phone.
The new billing system allows surfers to pay for content via their phone bill.
“Phone billing is very popular in Europe,” says PasswordByPhone’s business development manager, Marc Jarrett. “In our experience, Europeans are in general more reluctant to use their credit cards online, so phone billing for DRM-protected content is a valuable alternative for content providers offering premium and exclusive content. Phone billing can be used for both subscriptions and pay-per-view content and is well suited for both video and music content.”
MediaKey’s chief executive officer, Leon Standly, says, “Many of our DRM clients are aggressively moving towards PPV in order to sustain revenues from a fading subscription based market. Obviously, our primary role is to provide rock-solid content protection, but in effect our selection of integrated billing options has proven to be a competitive edge. We provide reliable integrations to the world’s leading billing providers as an integral part of a MediaKey DRM solution. Our customers appreciate that they don’t have to switch billing providers to benefit from a MediaKey solution.
“Phone billing also seems to be catching on in the U.S, so demand is expected to go up significantly as content providers are struggling with member retention and to maintain credit card processing relationships,” Standly adds.
PasswordByPhone facilitates discreet, anonymous, and affordable payment transactions compared to credit cards. With a Geo-IP tracking module, content owners are able to offer dynamic payment options, so that only surfers from a specific range of countries will be offered the pay-by-phone option.
“If you want European customers or simply convenient, discrete, and reliable billing – and at the same time reduce transactions costs – this is it,” says Standly.
