Ian Aaron is an interesting guy. Aaron is the president and chief executive officer of Waat Media Wireless Entertainment (WaatMedia.com), an aggregator and provider of so-called “late-night entertainment” for the mobile industry. Involved with digital communication for 15 years, he’s also the former president of TV Guide Television Group and a former TVN Entertainment Corp. executive. (TVN is a major mainstream Video-on-Demand provider in the cable and satellite broadcast arenas.)
It may seem like a big step to go from positions of influence at heavy hitters in the mainstream world to overseeing global mobile distribution of internationally recognized gaming and adult entertainment brands, but Aaron thinks his background in a space that not too long ago dealt with the same growing pains – now being experienced on the mobile playing field – gives him a unique perspective on where mobile can go and how it can get there without stumbling over its own feet.
“Getting [adult entertainment] brands to be viewed as mainstream is a key element in the process,” Aaron says. Brands like Vivid, Playboy, Girls Gone Wild, Penthouse, and others are opening real-world clubs in high-profile areas like Las Vegas—and those clubs are becoming popular destinations for Joe America, which bodes very well for the industry as a whole as it attempts to gain acceptance in realms that have been resistant to its incursion, he notes.
He also says the primary impetus behind the appearance of erotic content on the mobile networks won’t come from the direction most people anticipate: “The availability of erotic content will be driven by mainstream companies wanting to get their mature content out.”
Aaron sees successful adult content distribution as a stool with three legs; all three must be stable in order for the stool to stand: (1) Carriers must be comfortable with the brands offered over their networks; (2) Market forces must get behind age-verification for all content in order to ensure content meant for adults is seen only by adults; and (3) The public’s and the carriers’ comfort level with explicit content must not be rushed. Although the carriers will initially start with non-explicit “glamour” content (as they did in Europe), content delivery evolve to include more explicit material.
“It took two and a half to three years in Europe, but now people are comfortable with explicit content in some areas because the transition was handled responsibly,” Aaron says. “It’s the same process we saw in the cable industry. We’re trying to drive [a mobile] agenda here like we did overseas.”
Fortunately, Aaron says he’s seen some recent evidence that the forces outside the carriers may push them to move more quickly than otherwise expected. “When the video iPod came out, some of the carriers said, ‘How quickly can we launch?’” That leads him to believe mobile initiatives by companies like Vivid, Playboy, and Girls Gone Wild – all of which are preparing “mobisodes” for broadcast on Waat’s mobile TV networks in Europe – may be well-received in the U.S. sooner rather than later. The mobisodes, which resemble traditional television broadcasts in a shorter format, look promising. Not only do they offer companies a means of branding content on mobile devices, but they already are generating interest among potential advertisers, who would be able to reach mobile viewers much like traditional television advertisers reach their target audiences. “We’ve had inquiries from agencies and potential advertisers,” Aaron reveals.
Waat currently has on-deck content distribution agreements with more than 60 major mobile carriers worldwide.
