Virgin launches TV-on-mobile service

Posted on 7 Sep 2006 at 15:37

BT's DAB television service for mobile phones has launched with mobile operator Virgin to offer it to its customers via a phone from HTC.

Following successful trials earlier this year, the new service will broadcast BBC1, ITV1, Channel 4 and E4 programming, complete with a seven-day electronic program guide.

BBC One, ITV1 and E4 will be simulcast, meaning that everything on their terrestrial counterparts will be seen on the mobile service. Licensing restrictions may however prevent the mobile broadcast of certain programmes such as some film, sport and US-produced content.

Channel 4 will initially make its Short Cuts mobile-optimised channel available on BT Movio but is expected to move to a full simulcast in time.

The service also includes 'red-button' interactive functions that allow viewers and listeners to participate in programming and plan their mobile entertainment schedule.

As the service is being broadcast using DAB technology, DAB radio is also available with up to 50 stations available in major towns and cities. The DAB network covers some 85 per cent of the UK population.

The new service also requires a phone able to utilise the DAB network. In Virgin's case it is launching its package with the Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV phone from HTC: the world's first DAB-IP enabled device.

The phone will be free on contracts worth £25 or more, or otherwise costs £199. The Virgin Mobile TV service is free for the first three-months following its 1 October launch, and subsequently costs £5 a month.

Virgin promises the launch will be followed up in the succeeding weeks with a 'multi-million pound' advertising campaign, the face of which will be Pamela Anderson.

Alan Gow, managing director of Virgin Mobile, said: 'Virgin Mobile finally delivers what others have been promising for so long - real TV broadcast to your mobile, delivering the programmes you want to watch, when you want to watch them, in a simple and easy-to-use experience.'

BT Movio is a wholesale service, and while Virgin will be the first commercially launched service with an undisclosed period of exclusivity, we were told BT is also talking to other operators.

We were told that 'BT Movio has the sole licence for the UK's only national commercial DAB network'. This represents the 30 per cent or so of the DAB frequencies reserved for data-casting.

The current line-up of four television channels takes up 'all the capacity that [BT Movio] has secured on the Digital One network to deliver mobile TV services' we were told.

'We would hope to add more channels if and when more frequencies become available.'

A BT spokesperson described DAB as the 'only suitable spectrum for mobile broadcast TV currently available in the UK'. However, DAB technology, besides being ostensibly inefficient for broadcasting data, will have a limited lifespan once improved technologies become available.

We were told: 'The BT Movio platform is architected to support other technologies for mobile broadcast services such as DVB-H should they become viable in the future.'

To receive DVB-H broadcasts, however, will require a new, rather than upgraded, phone.

Author: Matt Whipp