14 DAY TRIAL // O2 and NTL Broadcast have announced the first details about the TV-to-mobile service, which will be provided in the Oxford region. CNN, Discovery Channel, Sky Sports News, Sky Travel and Cartoon Network are among the first channels available on this service. This is the first stage of the service, and in short period, users will be able to receive 16 TV channels directly on the cell phone.
The first tests of this service were carried out this spring. It is announced that there will be at least 500 participants, all subscribers of the O2 services. From the recent statements made by the provider of mobile telephony, it turns out tests will not begin until July and there will only be 350 participants that will use the Nokia 7710 terminal to receive TV shows.
The battle for attracting clients through the multimedia service offer is now fought by an increasing number of cell phone operators, this tactic targeting at the same time the selling of more advanced telephones compatible with those services. In some Asian regions there is already a well delimited offer of cell phones capable of receiving TV signal, but in Europe and in the United States, this trend has a slower adoption rate.
Vodafone and Orange already offer a narrower selection of video channels which can be viewed on the display of the cell phone.
Nokia has announced that according to its experts, the best way to transmute video signal to cell phones is DVB-H (digital video broadcasting to handheld), a solution which will be officially and commercially launched in Europe in 2006.