Virgin Prepares For Mobile TV Trial
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.
The new service offers Virgin Mobile customers access to live digital TV 24-hours a day, featuring the UK’s first mobile electronic programme guide (EPG), guiding viewers directly to their desired content and allowing alerts to remind them of specific programmes.
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 NTL And O2 Start First Mobile TV Trials).
BT: 0207 469 2337 www.btplc.com Virgin Mobile: 0845 6000 600 www.virginmobile.com