Europe UK : Volantis announced that it has been chosen by Channel 4 New Media, to develop and host the first dedicated Channel 4 branded mobile portal. Mobile.channel4.com will go live on 27th May 2005 to coincide with the launch of Big Brother 6. Later versions will include a wide variety of content from Channel 4’s top programmes, including Channel 4 News.

The Channel 4 direct-to-consumer mobile portal is a single-destination, 100% branded website, optimised for mobile phones. It enables precise control of content and a direct relationship with consumers, and can be reached by any UK resident with access to the Internet via their mobile phone. Big Brother 6 content will combine the best elements of the official Big Brother website, plus exclusive Big Brother content including news stories, information and gossip on the housemates, video clips and downloads to provide a comprehensive consumer experience around Big Brother.

The Channel 4 mobile portal promises to be one of the UK’s most popular direct-to-consumer mobile websites, especially as Big Brother audiences averaged over 5 million viewers per show in 2004, and a third of the total 15 million votes cast were via SMS. Its innovative design will reflect TV broadcast and PC Internet content, and will include real-time updates of news, editorial commentary, video streaming, ringtones, images, games, quizzes, competitions and voting capabilities.

The Channel 4 mobile portal utilises Volantis Managed Services, which provide end-to-end management and optimised delivery of content to different mobile devices across any network. Using Volantis Intelligent Content Adaptation™ technology, mobile web pages and downloads are optimised for each individual handset by recognising more than 350 attributes of over 1,300 mobile device types and generating, in real-time, content precisely formatted for every device. This means that each Channel 4 mobile portal user will receive an extremely high quality brand experience.

Ian Meakin, VP Marketing Volantis, said: “Channel 4’s innovation in putting hugely popular TV content onto mobile will significantly drive UK mass market usage of the mobile Internet past the 1.5 billion mobile web pages viewed each month. Channel 4’s Big Brother mobile offering is a cutting-edge service for one of the most popular TV series in the UK and we are delighted to be part of delivering this and rolling-out Channel 4’s future mobile services.”

Paul Whitehead, Head of Business Development for Channel 4 New Media, said: “Viewers are used to having a number of ways to interact with Channel 4 content including TV, Internet and SMS. Our mobile portal strategy ensures viewers will have 24/7 real-time, ‘anytime, anywhere’ access, whatever their handset, to the latest news and content from Channel 4 programmes like Big Brother. With their extensive experience of delivering large-scale mobile portals for leading international brands, Volantis is the ideal partner to help us achieve our strategy.”