Vodafone launches new mobile TV channels

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 10 December 2006 22:20

Your IT - Mobility

Hot on the heels of Telstra launching a range of Foxtel channels on its Next-G handsets, Vodafone has beaten Telstra’s 12 channels by now offering a total of 22 channels to watch, along with an Australian-first EPG that shows you what’s on right now. Vodafone have also had to change advertising details for their new 3.5G HSDPA modem thanks to Telstra.

The new range of channels now includes live streaming broadcasts of Australia’s public TV broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) which focuses on multicultural TV programming but is increasingly morphing into a regular free-to-air service with TV shows like Mythbusters, South Park and even in-program advertising (something it never did before until just recently, with ads previously limited to being aired before and after TV shows).

Other live streaming channels include Sky News Business, Sky News UK, BBC World and Fashion TV, while channels featuring ‘looped’ streaming content include shows like ‘Naked News’ and other music and entertainment programming such as music video TV show ‘Rage’.

The channels are only available to Vodafone customers with a 3G phone, and are all available at different pricing, with $8 multi-channel monthly subscription packs available, while individual channel pricing varying with a good benchmark for many being $5 per month or $1 per day.

With the advent of the $8 per month multi-channel packs, these offer the best value for Vodafone customers interested in those blocks of channels. The streams are also being offered at 128kbps, far better than the 64kbps efforts used by most mobile phone companies in the past to deliver streaming TV, with 128kbps channels looking sharper and clearer, although still nowhere near the absolute smoothness and clarity you’ll get from a regular television.

All of the mobile phone operators can clearly see that mobile video is a popular trend, with existing streaming TV channels being an obvious way to instantly deliver video to customers.

Vodafone also promise that the channels can be watched 24x7 non-stop if desired, without incurring extra fees, although given that people generally don’t have time to watch their mobile TV shows or channels for long periods of time, the ‘dip in and dip out’ nature of mobile TV watching should work in Vodafone’s favour, as it would appear that this is what they are banking on to minimize streaming costs.

Other providers such as Hutchison’s ‘3’ mobile carrier make the same promise, but on the Telstra Next-G network, users are automatically logged off after 15 minutes of continuous viewing, forcing the user to start the stream again to continue watching.

The EPG is also pretty cool, showing you the schedule and letting you instantly tune into ‘what’s showing now’ from the list of channels and shows. Suggestions that perhaps you’d one day be able to use the EPG to actually record TV shows directly to your phone were entertained, especially as this has already been spoken about overseas and theoretically already achieved, but Vodafone isn’t offering that service just yet, with space limitations on most phones a likely reason why beyond and copyright issues that may arise.

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