Virgin Mobile Offers TV To Customers
Virgin Mobile has become the latest network provider to provide television content to its customers’ mobile phones after signing a deal with BT to begin a four-month trial of the technology within London.
Virgin also promise the ability to record programmes onto the phone handset for later viewing on the move.
The new service uses existing DAB radio technology to provide live TV content over the air. Partners in the trial include Microsoft, Sky, Arqiva and GCap Media.
Initially, the pilot will provide selected Virgin Mobile customers with access to Sky Sports News, Sky News and Blaze, a new music channel designed specifically for mobile television, and to more than 50 digital radio channels. Customers will also be able to use an interactive ‘red button’, opening up even more services. Virgin claim that the initial channel line-up is also open to expansion, with the technology allowing for “significant” ehancements after the commercial launch.
Explaining the attraction of TV via mobile handsets, Graeme Hutchinson, sales and marketing director at Virgin Mobile, said: “This exciting new technology is a landmark in television broadcasting; it marks the coming together of the twenty-first century’s two most popular technologies – television and mobile phones. Digital mobile TV will revolutionise how, when, where and why we watch television and how we use our mobiles to communicate. People don’t just want to watch TV when they are at home; now they can watch it any time, any place, any where.”
Chris Hutchings, director of ventures for BT Wholesale added: “BT Livetime wants to be Europe’s first broadcast mobile TV service and it’s great to have a brand such as Virgin Mobile to deliver the service during this pilot. We think Virgin Mobile’s customers will really enjoy this service.”
Virgin’s trial of the new technology will overlap with that of rival network, O2, which is currently working with Arqiva to test the televisual capabilities of next generation of mobile phones. The O2 trial will involve BSkyB, Chart TV Show, Discovery Networks Europe, Shorts International and Turner Broadcasting, providing 16 channels to customers in Oxford with Nokia’s new 7710 handset (see Increasing Presence Of Women Online).
The mobile video service arena is predicted to be invested in substantially by service providers, with research company, Frost & Sullivan, forecasting mobile service revenues to increase to over $1.5 billion by 2009, up from just $28.8 million in 2004 (see Mobile Service Providers To Deepen Mobile Content).
A new strategic report by Informa Telecoms and Media predicts broadcast mobile television users to reach 124.8 million by 2010, with an inflection point predicted in 2009, as network rollout and device availability for the market reach a level of critical mass (see Popularity Of E-Shopping Continues To Grow).
The research estimates that by 2010, there will be globally 18.11 million terrestrial DMB subscribers, compared with 15.02 million satellite DMB users.