NEW YORK ? A Coca-Cola executive at the 2012 MMA Forum said that there may be instances when it makes sense for a brand to pay for the delivery of a video.

During the "Experts Roundtable on Mobile?s Impact on the Future of Video & Television" panel discussion, executives discussed the significant growth in the consumption of video content via mobile devices and the challenges and opportunities this growth offers brands, media companies, wireless providers and analytics firms. One focus of the panel was the current data crunch as video consumption and other data-heavy services grow, putting pressure on wireless carriers and others to figure out how to pay for the use.

?If the brand is providing something that the consumer wants, are they going to pay?? said Tara Scarlett, senior manager of CRM and precision marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, GA.

?In some cases it may make sense that the organization pay and in some cases that the consumer pay,? she said.

The panel was moderated by Tom Wheeler, managing director at Core Capital Partners, Washington.

Business model innovation
Wireless carriers are investing heavily in higher capacity networks to meet the growing demands for mobile data but want to be able to transfer some of the cost to consumers and even brands.

Most of the data is currently being used by a small number of people with lower data users subsidizing the higher use. However, in this group of heavy data users, the rate of growth in the amount of data they are using has started to slow down because of the caps put in place by wireless carriers on data use.

?We have a model that is going to cap out,? said Jonathan Carson, CEO of digital at Nielsen, New York. ?We have to get some equilibrium.

?Wi-Fi offloading will be part of that but it does have to involve innovation in business models as well,? he said.

?We will start to see the content and the cellular delivery packaged in creative ways that will look for very different.?

However, the idea that such innovation in business models could include instances where brands are expected to pay for the delivery of content is still a controversial one.

?The majority of content delivery, for the content itself and advertising, is going to be a standard-rate fee,? Louis Gump, vice president of mobile at CNN, Atlanta. ?Then there will be exceptions around the edges for other people.?

?It would be shocking in some respects if Coca-Cola had to pay to deliver an ad,? he said.

Cross-platform cooperation
Going forward, Ms. Scarlett said she expects all the different screens for media consumption will work together to present an opportunity for brands to encourage the creation of user-generated content.

In terms of mobile connecting all of these elements, how that will come to life in the future has yet to be defined in many cases. However, it is clear that much of the focus will be on entertainment and finding the ways that consumers want to stay engaged.

?Mobile is one of the opportunities to truly connect experiences across devices,? Ms. Scarlett said.

?It is the first channel that really starts connecting all of the different avenues,? she said. ?The key is to make sure we are always there when consumers wants to get in touch with us.?

As the media landscape evolves, it is important for brands to remain focused on the need to tell a compelling story, no matter what the channels are.

?Channels are going to be channels,? Ms. Scarlett said. ?It is about the story.

?How does the story come to life across all of these different universes,? she said. ?The story, that piece of content and how it affects you is equally important.

It is also important for the various stakeholders to keep in mind what is changing and what is staying the same as media consumption shifts. 

For example, for CNN the focus on world class journalism, integrity in the news and the need for courage to try new things has not changed, per Mr. Gump.

It is also necessary for media companies to understand what type of content users want to consume in which channels.

?What we are seeing now is a shift,? Mr. Gump said. ?We believe that the majority of people in the United States and a large portion of people internationally will be using video on mobile devices in the future.

?Mobile is not just mobile,? he said. ?Mobile is about content, consumers and brand.

?It isn?t just about a person watching the Space Shuttle landing on a phone ? it is about knowing they can get content whenever and wherever they want.?

Accurate analytics
One of the challenges the new paradigm presents for media companies is that everyone with a mobile device can become a journalist, shoot a video and post it for others to watch. However, this can also present opportunities for media companies if they can leverage this to enhance their coverage with big news stories that consumers are hungry for a variety of content about, such as the tsunami in Japan a year ago.

As media consumption moves from a small number of channels to millions of channels, another challenge presented by the move to consuming content across devices is how to accurately track consumer use and derive meaningful analytics for brands and media companies. Advances are being made in terms of taking big data and translating it to meaning metrics.

For brands, the challenge is figuring out how to measure and assign a value to the stories marketers are telling.

"The process of the last 15 to 20 years has been for the media industry and measurement industry figuring out how to transition from linear broadcast models to much more fragmented models, where content is created by many different outlets, consumed on different devices and delivered personally,? Mr. Carson said.

?Our big challenge is how do we get down to a simple level where we have metrics that matter to brands and media buyers,? he said.