Fox Buys Made-for-Mobile Drama

We’re starting to see more made-for-mobile series lately, as studios become increasingly aware of the opportunities on cell phones. The latest, courtesy of a UK-based Brand Republic report, is that Fox International Channels has purchased Endemol’s mobile television production ‘The Cell’ as its first online-only property:

“The drama, which takes the form of two 20-minute episodes, follows the story of a man who finds himself locked in a lawless prison with no idea of how he got there or why he is imprisoned. His only source of information is a mobile phone and a mysterious voice on the other end.”

The report said that ‘The Cell’ has already been broadcast in the UK on the O2 mobile network, and online on the Sony website crackle.com. For its part, Endemol said in the report that ‘The Cell’ marks the first time the studio has applied television production values to a made-for-mobile series. That was the inherent problem in the beginning; the fact that just because a program shows on a 2-inch screen, it won’t be any cheaper to make than a full-blown TV series.

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