This panel, moderated by The Hollywood Reporter deputy editor Andrew Wallenstein, included Telescope executive chair Jason George; Endemol USA SVP, digital media and branded entertainment Jon Vlassopoulos; GoTV Networks EVP/studio chief Daniel Tibbets; and Veeker co-founder/COO Marcus Yoder.

I confess, I came in late to this session because I just finished a long interview with L.M. Kit Carson, a filmmaker and journalist who shot short documentaries in Africa using the camera on his Nokia N93. I’ll be posting that shortly, so look out for it.

Wallenstein asked if there’s anything in the league of American Idol in terms of encouraging texting or participation as an adjunct to a TV experience. Vlassopoulos pointed out Deal or No Deal, and another participation show on BET that had a high level of interactivity participation. “The most exciting thing is that people are willing to get out their device and do something which is very significant for the advertisers,” he said. “We know American audiences like participating, so we know there is excitement. We’re working out the business models to connect carriers to the shows.”

The networks will be hungry for new revenue streams and the model will start to emerge, said George. Yoder said, however, that premium is still far off. “We’ve been trained as consumers that you pay a fee and you get your content,” he said. “Europeans are used to have to pay for everything.” The idea was bounced out that, for the 200 million texts that came for “Idol,” you could send them something down the pipe aside from an acknowledgment including a free use of the data for that vote. Pushing the carriers to do that open the opportunities for other sponsorships.

Mobile is a great device to get someone to perform a simple action, George added. A lot of our broadcast clients are interested in how to get people off TV to online and mobile and find rewards there and then drive them back to TV.

Vlassopoulos agreed. “TV is blind in terms of who’s watching,” he said. “If you encourage people to interact, you have their phone number and information. Everyone is asking the question about how digital will impact [traditional media], the death of the 30 second spot. Live programming will have a resurgence because it’s Tivo-proof. Having interactivity within advertisers spots, and moving people 360 to the web and back lets you know who they are.”

Wallenstein said he thought that momentum was lost over interactive applications; that broadcasters had tried and given up. Yes, broadcasters have slacked off, said Vlassopoulos. “I think there are some things on the back-end that have nothing to do with consumer or broadcaster demand that need to be sorted out,” he said. “The momentum is very much there. We’re trying to feed that demand as soon as possible.

Does it boil down to advertiser-demand being the main driver, asked Wallenstein, who said there was a schizophrenia between concern over disruption of traditional channels but weren’t ready to take the leap. What do you do to get them over the hump?

Tibbets agreed it is a Catch-22. “We have to get enough eyeballs in mobile to get advertisers to pay attention,” he said. “We can’t be mobile-centric, we have to pay attention to online, to TV. How we engage advertisers, it’s about brand integration, original content production – beyond mobile, what kind of eyeballs can I aggregate. If you can create the right brand identity and have the reach, that makes sense to them.”

GoTV started with P&G brands and as moved beyond that. He reported they’re working with a luxury car manufacturer but the series doesn’t have a car in it at all. It’s about brand identity, and the idea is to put it across as many broadband channels as possible. Yoder pointed out that he’s working with an athletic clothing manufacturer that wants user-generated content, as a jumping off point for interactivity. “If they do anything with the UGC, that’ll be icing on the cake, but the majority of the branding will be on a WAP page.”

Wallenstein asked for panelists’ opinions about MediaFLO. “It’s retro to re-purpose a linear feed, but maybe that’s how you get the soccer moms in,” he said. “What do you guys think of this market strategy?” “It’s clearly a long term play,” said Vlassopoulos. “It’ll come down to how well they play with the carriers.” “It’s still a marketing issue,” agreed Tibbetts, who reveals that Qualcomm is one of his investors. “The reality is that MediaFLO from a technology standpoint was to take the heavy lifting off the carriers. Can the network handle the volume of VOD or even streaming media? It was never built for that purpose. I have MediaFLO on my phone and I find it great when there’s a live event. If there’s a game on, and Comedy Central does “The Colbert Report” and if you don’t have access to it in any other way, it’s great and it’s fantastic quality. That’s great – but it’s not the final solution. The on-demand model is compelling when you want something specifically. You don’t have to wait for the bit you want or for the commercial to end.”

“It’s portable TV, so hopefully there’ll be more innovation on the VOD side,” said Vlassopoulos. “It’s a tricky model. With WiMAX, and other technologies looming…if you have your nice connected device, it’s more like a mini computer, then the value of MediaFLO evaporates somewhat.”

Is iPhone a good game changer? asked Wallenstein. Is there some other game changer you are all waiting for? The iPhone is just like the Internet on your phone, said Vlassopoulos, with a smaller computer screen, and that’s a game changer. Tibbets says the Internet browser on the phone, not WAP, is the future, and the iPhone did that. “WAP is dead,” he said.

Wallenstein asked panelists if conglomerates get it. Yes, said Vlassopoulos, who noted the close relationship with NBC. “They’re in lock-step with us in moving forward,” he said. “When we started in 2005, we had to yell loudly that it wasn’t just happening in Europe. I don’t know how my colleagues are faring with cable channels.” Tibbets noted it’s fairly recent that the big media companies realize that mobile is important. He quoted Peter Chernin who said that Fox has to regard mobile and broadband seriously. People at the media conglomerates get it, added Tibbets, but do they have the right infrastructure to deliver? Yes, they’re getting it as they experiment, added Yoder, who said that the media conglomerates are bringing on younger, more hip people. “In LA, 14 people at the local station has this in their bag of tricks when they’re out selling local,” he said.