So said Tim Hussain, head of mobile advertising at Sky, during a panel debate at the M-Publishing conference just now. It might strike some as an odd claim to make, but in making it, Hussain pointed out that there are around 15 buying points in mobile, compared to around 850 when buying online media. He went on to say that while mobile apps could and did generate revenue for Sky, its primary justification for publishing apps was to drive deeper engagement with its customers.

During the same panel discussion, Ben Tatton-Brown, co-founder of RingRing Media, revealed that the company is spending between £500,000 and £1m a month on mobile media, and that it is buying a lot more inventory off-deck, and placing a lot of business with ad networks such as AdMob and Millennial Media.

Tatton-Brown also advised delegates that they should not consider selling mobile ad inventory unless they have sufficient traffic. “There are companies you have probably never heard of serving billions of impressions, and making around $150,000 a month from mobile advertising,” he said.