Jo Best
BT has unveiled the details of its mobile TV offering, set for launch this year.
The BT Movio service, formerly known as BT Livetime, will see its first commercial outing this summer, following a four-month trial with 1,000 participants in the M25 area.
BT Movio will initially only be available on Virgin Mobile -- the pair are currently negotiating how long the period of exclusivity will last -- although both are hoping that more operators will take up the service in the near future.
One handset manufacturer, HTC, is confirmed as on-board, with the promise of at least one Microsoft-based device to debut for the launch. A Virgin Mobile spokesman said the operator is in talks with other handset manufacturers over TV-ready phones.
BT will act as wholesaler to the mobile operators to sell Movio as their own-branded product, with BT charging on a per-subscriber basis. According to Emma Lloyd, MD of BT Movio, the company has invested somewhere in the region of "tens of millions" of pounds in the project.
A number of details surrounding the service have yet to be finalised, however. No official launch date has been confirmed, although Lloyd said it was likely to be after the World Cup in July. And BT has still not finalised the channel line-up, although during the trial it used stations including E4, ITV2 and Sky News. The company is hoping to eventually increase the line-up to around 15 stations.
While research on consumer reaction to mobile TV has found demand to be sketchy, BT is convinced Joe Public will be happy to pay up to £8 per month to tune in via his handset, according to research conducted on those involved in the trial.
According to BT, Movio's users spent an average of 60 minutes per week viewing television over their mobiles and 95 minutes listening to the digital radio.
One user, Chris Gardener, told CNET.co.uk's sister site silicon.com he liked the service but would wait to see how Movio was priced before signing up. "The cost and package need to be tailored to my needs -- for me there was too much variety -- I wouldn't want to pay for a whole host of channels I didn't watch."
The launch will see BT offering the first commercial broadcast TV service for mobiles in Europe. Interestingly, BT has decided on DAB as its standard for Movio -- one in the eye for Nokia, which is backing the DVB-H standard with its own mobile TV pilots in conjunction with O2. Consequently, any operators selling Movio won't be able to offer Nokia handsets in their line-up.
Annalise Berendt, analyst at Ovum, said the decision to shun DVB-H will figure in users' minds but may not prove decisive for the service's future.
She said: "It does limit the service -- Nokia is a big brand and it will be another consideration for users. The service will have to stand on its own merits even more. Ultimately, though, I think it's the right content that's key, regardless of handset."
According to BT's Lloyd, DAB is the only choice for rollouts in the UK at the moment: "Not only has DAB already been licensed, a significant amount of infrastructure is already in place." DAB has become a firm fixture in digital radio -- which Movio will also offer, with some 60 stations.
While more details on the service are expected to be announced in February at the mobile-phone industry's annual get together, 3GSM, BT is currently working on increasing the battery life of handsets from the current two-and-a-half hours of continuous TV viewing to a projected four-and-a-half to five hours.
Visit reviews.cnet.co.uk for in-depth reviews of many more products
