AS THE WORLD TURNS: ONLINE SOAP ON WAY TO MOBILE PHONES.

Byline: Eugene Tong  Staff Writer

VALENCIA - A local entertainment company that has revived one of the first online soap operas to hit the Internet wants the program on a mobile phone near you.

Valencia-based Stewdiomedia Entertainment has been producing and distributing ``The Spot'' over the past year. The show - webcast between 1995 and 1997 - follows a group of young adults sharing a Santa Monica beach house.

Last year, Santa Monica-based Web and wireless content provider Cyber Oasys Corp. recruited Stewdiomedia to revive the show, which celebrates its one-year return with a special 30-minute online episode today.

Besides streaming the programs on the Web, fans can interact with the characters through slide shows and text on the Sprint PCS mobile network, and soon watch bonus two- to three-minute video segments on their phones.

``They actually call the fans,'' said Stewart St. John, Stewdiomedia's president and head writer during the show's original run. ``It's kind of a virtual world we've created. It allows fans to have an actual impact on the story line.

``For me, storytelling on a new platform is what turns me on. It's pretty exciting. ... We're just scratching the surface of what could be happening next.''

Mobile-phone broadcasting appears to be the next portable communication frontier, said Ken Hyers, an analyst with ABI Research who has studied the medium.

``You don't have to teach people how to watch TV,'' said Hyers, a principal analyst for the New York-based market research firm. ``This is pretty intuitive. We've all been trained since childhood to look at screens and change channels.''

Hyers' study identified considerable investment in technology and infrastructure. San Diego-based wireless giant Qualcomm has committed to investing $800 million for the rest of the decade on mobile video, with other firms prepared to spend similar amounts.

``You've built the highway, but is anybody going to drive on it?'' he said. ``Interest in any of these types of services - somewhere of 10 (percent) to 15 percent of people say they will buy the service. But that's different (if) somebody would have to plunk down $15 a month and $200 for a phone.''

Still, there is growing consumer interest. Nationwide, about 400,000 people have subscribed to these services - some 350,000 on Sprint alone - and similar services in South Korea and Japan have done well, Hyers said.

``Suppose you're watching the Red Sox, and you want to check on your fantasy sports league; you would do that through your cellular channel,'' he said. ``The question remains how quickly people will adopt to them, how quickly the services are rolled out and how quickly the prices for handsets come down.

``And you really don't want to program anything more than two to three minutes,'' he said, warning of the smaller screen's limitations.

St. John said the show's Web site receives about a half million page views a month, while the mobile-phone audience - each subscriber pays $3.95 per month for the content - is growing at roughly 15 percent each month. The company also has about 15 phone-based series in development, and has discussed rolling out the series on phones in Europe.

``We can still grow this thing,'' he said. ``We're looking at syndication for the mobile market overseas. ... They're really excited with what we're doing, the quality, and obviously with the fan base.''

For information about the show, visit www.thespot.com.

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com