Premium Rate Culture: the New Business of Mobile Interactivity

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New Media & Society
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/9/5/753
The online version of this article can be found at:
DOI: 10.1177/1461444807080340
New Media Society 2007 9: 753
Gerard Goggin and Christina Spurgeon
Premium rate culture: the new business of mobile interactivity
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Premium rate culture: the
new business of mobile
interactivity
GERARD GOGGIN
University of Sydney, Australia
CHRISTINA SPURGEON
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Abstract
This article considers a neglected but crucial aspect of the
new business of mobile interactivity: the premium rate data
services industry. It provides an international anatomy of this
industry model and the ways in which it has been used to
capitalize upon the surprising success of short message service
(SMS) to provide a basis for the development of consumer
markets for mobile data services. It situates this analysis within
a wider consideration of the role of premium rate culture in the
social shaping of interactivity in convergent media. Specifically, it
looks at how premium rate services are being constructed in
relation to telecommunications, television and the internet.The
article concludes that although premium rate culture has
rejuvenated innovation in broadcast television, potentially it may
constrain the interactive potential of the mobile internet.
Key words
interactivity • mobile internet • mobile messaging • mobile
phones • premium mobile services • premium rate... [continues]

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