Europe
: In a UK first, EastEnders, Coronation Street, CSI and Lost are just
some of the TV programmes up to 400 O2 customers, living and working
in Oxford, will be able to watch live on an advanced mobile phone
from next week.
O2 and Arqiva (previously known as NTL Broadcast) have teamed up with
Nokia as well as the leading terrestrial and satellite broadcasters
to kick-off the UK's first trial of full multi-channel mobile TV.
16 channels are being offered to O2 customers, including BBC ONE,
BBC TWO, BBC News 24, ITV 1, ITV 2, Channel 4 and Five, which will
provide a core of mainstream channels coupled with programmes from
British Eurosport, Cartoon Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, MTV, ShortsTV,
Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Travel.
Customers will be able to select their favourite programme from an
on-screen service guide, search for specific items as well as set
their handset to alert them when a show starts. The trial will run
for up to six months and is designed to test and showcase the televisual
capabilities of the next generation mobile services. It will look
at how people choose to catch up on their favourite TV shows, how
they watch the latest music videos and keep up to date with the news
and sport when on the move, and provide an understanding of how much
customers are willing to pay for the service.
The service is based on the new DVB-H (digital video broadcasting
- handheld) transmission technology and works by beaming a signal
to a digital TV receiver, which is attached to Nokia's 7710 smartphone,
transforming it into a portable TV. DVB-H is ideally suited to sending
high-quality, digital TV pictures from a single source to multiple
users in a way that complements the one-to-one video streaming which
is already possible via today's GPRS and 3G mobile data networks.
Dave Williams, O2's chief technology officer, said: "Increasingly,
new forms of content are making their way onto mobile devices - music,
in particular, is already booming - and the latest buzz is about television.
There will be many millions of mobile TV viewers worldwide by 2010.
"As an emerging industry, mobile TV will require a willingness
of operators, regulators, broadcasters and handset suppliers to strike
new deals. Regulators need to licence new spectrum, which will allow
global economies to exist, broadcasters and publishers will need to
tackle digital rights issues and operators develop workable revenue
sharing partnerships. By establishing relationships through activities
such as this, we hope that potential challenges will be minimised
and mobile TV becomes a commercial reality sooner than is currently
possible."
Hyacinth Nwana, Arqiva's managing director, mobile media solutions,
commented: "We've pulled together an extremely strong and varied
16-channel line-up, reflecting the range of content that our original
research identified as desirable for a mobile television service.
In Europe all evidence points to mobile TV being mass market. Oxford
will address the critical success factors such as scalability, consumer
experience, content mix and consumer choice."
Mark Selby, Nokia's Vice President, Sales, Multimedia, added: "The
Oxford trial is an important step in the roll out of mobile broadcast
TV, building on the recent successful trial in Helsinki, Finland.
Consumer reaction and usage patterns will help the broadcast and mobile
industries understand what content viewers want to see on this exciting
new technology. The Oxford trial will add valuable new research and
it will be followed by multiple trials in Europe, Asia and America.
Nokia is pleased to be working with O2, Arqiva and the many content
producers participating in this trial."
