US Premium SMS Revenues Hit $273 Million

Premium SMS made up 32 percent of US mobile content revenue in the first quarter of this year, bringing in $273 million according to Telephia. Most of this revenue (79 percent or $215 million) was as payment for mobile content, while voting/sweepstake entries generated 13 percent of total revenues with $35 million—although this represented 47 percent of premium SMS volume, reports MediaPost. “NBC’s Deal or No Deal has translated into a premium SMS hit, generating nearly half of the volume and revenue of voting/sweepstakes entries in the first quarter of 2007,” said Telephia. According to the report in the US 29,544 pieces of mobile content were bought off-portal with premium SMS in the first quarter.