Here Comes Cell TV?

British Telecom Wholesale has announced that it will be piloting from June a new service to deliver live television to UK mobile phones, in
partnership with Virgin Mobile, NetImperative reports. BT
Livetime will give customers access to Sky Sports News, Sky News and
new music channel Blaze, alongside over 50 digital radio channels. The service will also include the UK’s first mobile Electronic
Programme Guide (EPG).

The news follows the recent announcement by Orange to deliver TV content on their phones. Is this the start of a boom for Cell TV? Russell Buckley over at the Mobile Technology Weblog isn’t too convinced about the current offering though:

The Orange service costs £10 a month ($18) [which] at first glance this might seem reasonable… except that’s a completely wrong assumption. There’s a one GB limit
per month on viewing… this’ll allow you
to watch a mere 20 hours a month for your money. What’s that?
Approximately 40 minutes a day.

Why do operators keep pricing data by the size of the download
package. Don’t they realise no one understands it? Or are they trying
to hide behind technology to disguise how much they charge?

Meanwhile, a related article in the New York Times caught our eye. It’s about how program makers are looking to reformat existing content for the digital medium: the makers of so-so received rock concert show "Pepsi Smash" are rehashing the show to broadcast gigs by folks like Gwen Stefani through Yahoo.

Will we see the trend of broadcasters re-using old TV content in Cell TV too? Maybe the telecoms have got it right, after all – we’ll only want to watch 40 minutes a day because the rest will be ‘repeats’. ;)

NetImperative Article
Mobile Weblog Post
New York Times Article
PSFK Web TV Articles