What’s for dinner tonight? Users of iPods and iPhones who lack answers to the question can now get inspiration by downloading episodes of Fixing Dinner wherever they happen to be when hunger strikes.
Calgary-based MoboVivo and Joe Media Group inked a deal this week to bring the popular food show – which airs on Food Network Canada and, in the US, American Life and Discovery Asia – to mobile devices across North America for a download fee of $1.99 per episode.
‘This is a first for MoboVivo,’ says company CEO Trevor Doerksen. ‘We are featuring Fixing Dinner with companion recipes and meal plans to help today’s families fix [their own] dinners.’
Adds Joe Media president Joe Novak: ‘With almost 90% of families having no idea what they’re having for dinner that night, this is the download that removes the stress and puts the fun back into fixing dinner. Fixing Dinner is such a popular television franchise, and [host – pictured] Sandi Richard’s companion cookbook, The Dinner Fix, is a bestseller, so it made sense to make episodes available online.’
Doerksen says MoboVivo is one of the first companies to offer paid downloads of TV shows in Canada, and one of the most popular iPhone television content providers in the world. Since November, he adds, traffic to the MoboVivo website from mobile devices ‘has been steadily rising to close to 30% of our total traffic. We are now customizing an iPhone and iPod microsite with special content.’
As well, Doerksen says his company is ‘providing a lot of free programs and expanding the resources with additional content and our unique Buy & Sync program, which allows users not only to view videos on their mobile phones, but also to purchase videos directly from their handsets or iPods.’
