BT pulls the plug on mobile TV service
BT has pulled the plug on Virgin Mobile's fledgling mobile TV service less than a year after it was launched, raising further questions about the appetite consumers have for watching television content on the small screen.
BT, which provides the bandwidth to support the Virgin Mobile service, had expected to sign up other mobile phone companies to launch similar products. Yet consumer demand for Virgin's service has been low and BT has thus cancelled its deal with the radio company GCap to provide spectrum for broadcasting TV content to mobile phones and shut down its Movio division that was established to offer wholesale mobile TV content.
At the turn of the century, delivering TV content to mobile phones was seen as a key growth driver for operators. But a lack of appropriate handsets and a divergence over what system is best for delivering TV on to mobile phones has hampered progress in deploying the service.
Operators such as 3, Vodafone and Orange have launched limited mobile TV services that deliver content to an individual handset via a 3G network but a fully fledged broadcast network for mobile TV is the holy grail for the industry.
Virgin launched its mobile TV service to much fanfare last October, spending £2.5m on advertising that featured former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson. The service was based on a standard that utilised digital radio spectrum, meaning only a limited number of channels could be offered to consumers.
It was also only available to consumers willing to use a special handset, dubbed the "Lobster", that is much larger than most other mobile phones on the market. The service will be shut off early next year.
O2 and Nokia backed a rival delivery method called DVB-H that can carry up to 16 channels and last week the European Commission backed that standard. A third standard, developed by Qualcomm, has proved more popular with US mobile phone companies and is being tested by BSkyB.
Bruce Renny, a spokesman for the free mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment, said that consumers do not want to pay a subscription to receive TV content they can get for free at home. "Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer," he said.
By Nic Fildes
Published: 27 July 2007
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
BT has pulled the plug on Virgin Mobile's fledgling mobile TV service less than a year after it was launched, raising further questions about the appetite consumers have for watching television content on the small screen.
BT, which provides the bandwidth to support the Virgin Mobile service, had expected to sign up other mobile phone companies to launch similar products. Yet consumer demand for Virgin's service has been low and BT has thus cancelled its deal with the radio company GCap to provide spectrum for broadcasting TV content to mobile phones and shut down its Movio division that was established to offer wholesale mobile TV content.
At the turn of the century, delivering TV content to mobile phones was seen as a key growth driver for operators. But a lack of appropriate handsets and a divergence over what system is best for delivering TV on to mobile phones has hampered progress in deploying the service.
Operators such as 3, Vodafone and Orange have launched limited mobile TV services that deliver content to an individual handset via a 3G network but a fully fledged broadcast network for mobile TV is the holy grail for the industry.
Virgin launched its mobile TV service to much fanfare last October, spending £2.5m on advertising that featured former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson. The service was based on a standard that utilised digital radio spectrum, meaning only a limited number of channels could be offered to consumers.
It was also only available to consumers willing to use a special handset, dubbed the "Lobster", that is much larger than most other mobile phones on the market. The service will be shut off early next year.
O2 and Nokia backed a rival delivery method called DVB-H that can carry up to 16 channels and last week the European Commission backed that standard. A third standard, developed by Qualcomm, has proved more popular with US mobile phone companies and is being tested by BSkyB.
Bruce Renny, a spokesman for the free mobile TV provider ROK Entertainment, said that consumers do not want to pay a subscription to receive TV content they can get for free at home. "Simply broadcasting linear TV to mobiles is not the answer," he said.
By Nic Fildes
Published: 27 July 2007
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited
