know | Future

The New York Times reports that carriers are just raring to suck up all that high speed bandwidth you just got on your phone with video ads. Cell phone carriers in the past have been leery of infuriating their customers with advertising, but the confluence of data rates high enough to credibly do video, almost universal gps capabilities on newer handsets and the explosion of video-on-small-screens a la iPod has just proved to be too much for them to resist. The plan is to offer opt-in for the incredibly short three second ads. Leading the charge is newcomer ESPN Mobile which has already inked deals with Visa, Nike and Hilton Hotels. Analysts are breathlessly predicting a $1.2B market by 2009.

It will be interesting to see what agencies come up for a three second spot…