Look, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless plan to introduce mobile TV services

Competition in the mobile television service market is heating up as two of Canada’s national wireless operators, Rogers Wireless Inc. and Bell Mobility, as well as wireless cableco Look Communications have announced plans to bring TV viewing to cell phones and other mobile devices. Rogers Wireless unveiled one for its mobile TV service on April 14, and Bell Mobility issued a statement later that same day announcing it too was also entering the space. Some details about Look’s mobile TV service, which would be deployed on the company’s mobile wireless network, were revealed in its second quarter financial results released April 19. Both Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility plan to use the MobiTV service, developed by Idetic Inc. and currently offered in the United States by Sprint PCS, Cingular and some regional U.S. carriers. Look’s mobile TV service will operate on a network between Windsor ON and Quebec City using its 100 MHz of MDS spectrum. Rogers anticipates that its service will be commercially available sometime between now and June and will include exclusive programming on the Toronto Blue Jays, news, sports and entertainment. The service will bring at least eight TV channels to subscribers’ phones. Rogers notes that discussions are ongoing with such channels as MSNBC, CP24, NBC On-line, Discovery, The Learning Channel, the Weather Channel, NBC Mobile, Comedy Time and ToonWorld. The service, once available, can be purchased directly from a Rogers Wireless phone. After the service has been downloaded the first time, Rogers Mobile Television will be accessible from the wireless phone’s menu. It will be available for a promotional period for $9 a month, plus additional data transport costs of between $10 and $15 per month. The price includes a subscription fee and access to the channels. The service capitalizes on megatrends, including "the coming together of television, Internet and telephony and makes it real in the form of Rogers Mobile TV," said Rogers Wireless president and CEO Nadir Mohamed during a media conference call announcing the new product. Idetic chair and CEO Philip Alvelda said during the media conference that unlike in the United States where there are large divides between broadcasters and network operators, the Canadian companies wanting to get into mobile TV have assets that include both content and infrastructure. "It has been in many cases a rocky relationship (in the United States) getting the content right, solidifying them in a coherent product offering and giving customers what they want. But in the case of Rogers, I think the foresight of having the unification of the content, the cable operations, and now the mobile operations with a converged TV product is truly an unprecedented opportunity," he said. Like Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility is part of a larger corporate entity with diverse holdings in media, broadcasting, communications and content. "This wireless java application (MobiTV), developed by Idetic Inc., is downloaded onto a user’s phone and allows them to see right on the screen of their handset live streams of audio-video content like sports, news, weather, entertainment and comedy," notes Bell Canada spokesperson Nessa Prendergast in the Bell statement. Bell demonstrated the MobiTV application in May 2004 at its annual general meeting, and says it has been working to secure unique Canadian content to complement Idetic’s U.S. offering. Bell plans to offer the mobile TV service commercially at the beginning of May, and it will be available on selected handsets for $10 a month, plus mobile browser time. MobiTV in the United States contains such channels as MSNBC, ABC News Now, NBC Mobile, CNBC, Fox Sports, the Discovery Channel, the Learning Channel, the Weather Channel, Comedy Time, and California Music Channel. Look’s mobile TV service will offer a larger supply of TV content – 80 video channels and more than 100 channels of audio – but will not be available nationally like the services offered by Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless. It will only be available along Look’s mobile wireless network. The service will be offered over mobile wireless handheld devices, including some phones; some of the mobile devices are currently in various stages of development. Look hopes to roll out its mobile TV service in late 2005 or early 2006, beginning in Toronto, then Montreal and to eventually cover the entire corridor between Windsor and Quebec City. The devices on which the mobile TV will be received, according to Look officials, will have multiple capabilities, including having the capacity to store hours of movies and handle two-way Internet interactive material. Look announced in its financial results for the second quarter that it continues to aggressively pursue its new business strategy of becoming a mobile broadband multimedia service provider. Its network is currently in beta testing in Toronto. "We see the transition to mobile broadband as inevitable and services like mobile TV, Internet and voice communication are now being tested in single handheld devices throughout North America and actual services are being offered in Korea and some cities in Europe," said Look vice-chair and CEO Gerald McGoey. "We have the necessary licensed spectrum to deliver mobile multimedia services and we have a broadcasting licence which allows us to provide extensive content on news, sports, finance, weather and other programming."

Look, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless plan to introduce mobile TV services

Broadcast | April 22, 2005

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