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View Full Version : BBC announces 3G TV and radio trial



gorilla
29th March 2007, 03:52 PM
From Digital Spy (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a44593/bbc-announces-3g-tv-and-radio-trial.html):

The BBC has confirmed that it plans to trial carriage of TV and radio stations on the 3G phone networks operated by Orange, Vodafone and 3.

Subscribers to TV packages offered by the three mobile operators will be able to view BBC One, BBC Three and BBC News 24 and listen to Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, 6 Music, BBC7 and Asian Network. The trial will start "within the month" and will last for twelve months.

"By making a range of television channels and radio networks available to 3G mobile phone subscribers, we hope to test not only the effectiveness of 3G as a means of distribution, but also how audiences respond to the BBC's linear services on their mobiles," said Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of future media and technology. "The findings, combined with quantitative and qualitative consumer research, will inform the BBC's future mobile strategy."

The BBC has also unveiled a new version of its website optimised for mobile devices that are capable of displaying XHTML pages.

"The BBC constantly aims to make its content available to as many people in as many ways as possible," said Richard Halton, controller of business strategy at the BBC. "The mobile platform is a great opportunity for us to reach existing users in a new way and connect better with people who are not currently big users of the BBC.

"The BBC believes that mobile content is an important part of the broadcasting landscape and is looking at ways in which mobile devices will shape services of the future for licence fee payers.

"To this end, the BBC will be undertaking extensive and unique research into consumer behaviour and experience throughout the 3G mobile syndication trial. To date we have done relatively little consumer research in this area, and it will provide us with a detailed insight into consumer behaviour."

Hands0n
29th March 2007, 09:49 PM
It'll fail. It always does. No one wants to spend £5 or more to try and watch TV on a tiny screen. Mobile signals are not robust enough to watch TV on the move and if static the better option is a regular TV of almost any size! TV is not the "killer app" for 3G. Cheap voice, data (Internet), modem data, text, mms and videocalling is the sure way to get the bread and butter return on the 3G deployment. All this flashy stuff is but a distraction.

Also .mobi is dead out of the water without sensible data tariffs! At present only T-Mobile offer a viable data tariff to support the .mobi initiative.

Ben
30th March 2007, 12:07 AM
It's about time the BBC made their channels available, but I'd have liked to have seen them available for free on the Internet first...

Anyway, a good step, but not an important one.

miffed
30th March 2007, 07:26 AM
Great ! .... So now the BBC will be wanting everyone with a mobile phone to have a TV licence ...
Excellent news ............. (money grabbing swines :mad: :( )

Ben
30th March 2007, 10:10 AM
They wanted everyone to at least be covered by an existing one anyway, didn't they? :p

Hands0n
30th March 2007, 11:04 AM
Yes, the Licence Act is suitably worded to require you to hold a TV licence if "any apparatus capable of receiving TV transmissions". The key is that there is no definition of how those are received, so even if it is via 3G or Internet it still qualifies. We are now at the state where - unless you have a device completely incabable of receiving wired or wireless transmission of TV - every home has to have a TV licence!

gorilla
30th March 2007, 11:13 AM
I'm not sure what the point is myself. In a few years phones will come equipped with DAB instead of FM, so there's their radio sorted. TV on a mobile? We've all tried it, and it is novel, but I haven't watched in a year and to be honest, I wasn't really sure what was going on! Certainly for footy highlights etc it's ok, but do we really need to see the goals at 5:15?