UK Channel 4 offers Popworld with RokTV

UK’s Channel 4 has continued its move into the mobile space with a new partner, Rok TV. The music show Popworld will be broadcast immediately following its weekend broadcast on C4 and E4…it will join 10 other channels currently available on Rok TV including Cartoon Network, ITN, CNN and National Geographic. “The images are broadcast to appear in wide screen”…that’s the first time I’ve heard mobile described as “wide screen”, but you know what they mean…Channel 4 has announced it wants to be the leading broadcaster in mobile TV and appears to be trying every delivery channel, possibly to work out which one is best.

ShortTV Video Messages

ShortTV has worked with mBlox to put up a video messaging site: Check it out at WizWak.com. The service allows people to send video messages to their friends (or complete strangers, I guess) as well as a talking avatar service — which has “virtual representations of people, animals and characters, users can enter any text message which automatically becomes spoken by the avatar when the message is played”. The press release claims this is the “the first publicly available video greetings to U. S. subscribers of ATT/Cingular, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile who own video capable cell phones”… I’ve heard of other services in preparation but I don’t know whether they are live. You can have a look at the avatars here — they come with a fairly robotic voice and a limited range of emotions, but read the text I typed in pretty well.The video section is pretty interesting — in the greetings I liked the “happy birthday” one in a WTF kind of way. The funny video section is also a good move: “These mobile videos are produced by others as commercials for major brands but are extremely entertaining clips. The delivery fee of $1.99 is simply our cost to deliver them to your cell phone.”

fuse to carry MobiTV

Fuse, the alternative TV music channel, will offer music-related content to MobiTV’s operator partners…this is in keepign with the TV channel’s effort to push its own “fuseMobile” brand.

Alltel has signed up MobiTV to provide a mobile TV service for the carrier

Alltel has signed up MobiTV to provide a mobile TV service for the carrier… it will offer “live television broadcasts and made-for-mobile content to wireless customers starting Monday for $9.99 per month. Customers can view the broadcasts initially on the new Motorola RAZR V3c”, with more handsets (such as Motorola V710 and Nokia 6255i) available next month.The 25 channels initially offered will include ABC News Now, CNBC, ESPN 3GTV, FOX Sports, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, Discovery Channel, ToonWorld TV, Comedy Time, MAXX Sports, and Fashion TV. There is no indication of whether or not there will be data charges from Alltel — the company has a $19.99 per month data plan that includes “mobile web”.This puts MobiTV on three of the top 5 mobile networks in the US, and I’m pretty sure the economics works the same as with TV sets — the more viewers, the more money there is to provide good content. Back in September MobiTV said it had 500,000 subscribers.

Wonderphone Experiments with Mobile TV

French mobile content company Wonderphone has announced “that it will request authorization from the CSA (the French TV regulatory body) to experiment a new concept of mobile television called ‘Push to Store’.” I’m a little surprised at the need to get authorization…The idea behind ‘Push to Store’ is that programs are sent to the mobile handset and stored in the memory of the phone for the user to watch whenever they want. “This type of delivery can optimize bandwidth utilization by a factor of up to 20.”

Madonna Mobile Videos

Madonna is continuing to tie herself to the portable music industry, with a deal between 3 and Warner Music to premier Madonna’s latest single ‘Hung Up’ on the mobile network…this follows deals with 3 and Sony BMG, EMI and independent service Vidzone.

James Blunt Mobile Video

The video for the new single from James Blunt will today receive its global premiere on mobile phones, part of a trend that the industry predicts will next year see them becoming as important as radio and television in promoting artists.... "In some weeks, artists can sell more videos at £1.50 each than they do conventional singles. The most popular video to date has been for dance track Call on Me by Eric Prydz, which has been downloaded more than 500,000 times."