Though the wireless industry was optimistic about cellphone-based advertising and content distribution, the fear of consumer backlash has influenced the latest big wireless content deals to be exclusively subscription based, reports Ad Age (via MediaBuyerPlanner). Despite marketers' natural interest in mobile advertising, no advertisers have taken the plunge. New services, including Fox Corp.'s new global mobile-content company Mobizzo and CBS Corp.'s CBS News to Go and Entertainment Tonight product ET to Go, will only be offered through subscription.

CBS vice president of wireless, Cyriac Roeding, said advertisements have yet to enter subscription-video products because "we're creating a lot of things on the sly and advertisers need a lot longer lead time. It's about getting the two development cycles aligned."

An Airwide Solutions survey published February 27 found that 89 percent of major brands plan to market via cellphones by 2008, and over half of the brands forecast spending between 5 percent and 25 percent of their marketing budgets in mobiles in the next five years.