Viva Vision spent the past year establishing commercial agreements with major U.S. wireless carriers. That task achieved, the mobile entertainment company is looking to pursue off-deck opportunities.

Due to carrier preference for walled gardens -- content portals that they maintain as opposed to the open Web -- on-deck sales still drive the bulk of domestic revenues. But Viva sees potential beyond.

"There is a growing opportunity in the off-deck space that includes multiple revenue streams beyond just direct sales," said Mark Deetjen, vice president of content of Viva Vision, San Diego.

"It is Viva's intent to address this marketplace in 2008 and make it a significant part of the company sales strategy as the mobile content space opens up," he said.

As with on-deck sales, the U.S. market drives most of Viva's revenues, Mr. Deetjen said. The company now wants to decrease its reliance on the U.S. and Latin America, so it is looking to expand into other overseas markets.

So what exactly does Viva do? The company delivers slideshows, video on-demand and live video through three technology platforms, SlideCast, ClipCast and LiveCast.

"With mobile video really in its infancy, we've identified a growing market in the entertainment slideshow business," Mr. Deetjen said.

Slide rules
Described as a bridge between the traditional wallpaper and true video experience, SlideCast reaches a wide range of handsets and is Viva's cash cow. The products are subscription-based applications that deliver still photography to the handset through Viva's technology.

SlideCast allows for the fast-forward, rewind and pausing of the show, as well as active voting that is reflected in weekly winners of head-to-head match-ups.

For VOD via ClipCast, Viva partners with carriers to accommodate their different video-delivery platforms. The company's channels on Verizon Wireless run through the carrier's V-Cast service. It is available to all subscribers of V-Cast.

Viva has created a proprietary codec that lets it deliver video through a standalone, subscription-based application for carriers other than Verizon.

Just like SlideCast, the ClipCast delivery platform enables complete interactivity with the videos as they play ads.

LiveCast applications are primarily sold in Latin America mainly due to U.S. carrier restrictions limiting products that require heavy bandwidth usage.

Subscription-based, LiveCast offers customers round-the-clock access to video streams, including the shark tank at the aquarium in Veracruz, Mexico, and live traffic from Mexico City.

Viva partners with a number of brands to help them in their outreach efforts or to establish them in the mobile space. For example, the company launched slideshow applications for Show magazine and Latin media giant Univision.

License to shill
Next year, Viva will launch slideshows and video channels for brands in the male lifestyle magazine, automotive press and action sports areas. It could not disclose the brands' names for competitive reasons.

Viva's delivery platforms let brands "monetize existing libraries and reach consumers actively on carrier decks in the mobile space," Mr. Deetjen said.

"In addition to the incremental revenue that we generate for brands," he said, "we bring value to the carriers that sell the products on their decks."

Viva's strategy is to identify and address underserved verticals in the mobile market. Licensing content for applications bearing its partner brands' names as well as creating original content for its own applications is a formula that won't change even as the company targets new markets.

"[Viva] has built a significant library of still and video content that is an asset to the company that we intend to exploit internationally," Mr. Deetjen said.

"We've already entered into discussions to distribute in Asia and Europe and will continue to push forward on this strategy to reach as many worldwide mobile media consumers as possible," he said.