Thursday, March 08, 2007 Telecom company offers mobile TV
SMARTS Communications has given Philippine television a new face with its mobile TV system.
Orlando Vea, president of Media Quest Holdings Inc., partner of Smart Communications in the venture, said the new service - Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld or DVB-H - aims introduce a new form of digital technology.
"Mobile TV offers television in ways that are both comfortably familiar and excitingly novel," Vea said.
He said for the next three years, Smart, Media Quest and NBC Broadcasting will provide an initial capital of US$50 million. "In the future all cell phones would have mobile TV capability and this is one way of introducing it," Vea said.
For his part, Napoleon Nazareno, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Smart, said they expect mobile TV to be a success just like their other products. "Our goal is to introduce an exciting new dimension to television viewing in the Philippines. We are giving TV a new face - that of the mobile handset," Nazareno added.
Nazareno said mobile TV would be initially available in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao and only to their post-paid subscribers using a DVB-H enable handset.
Among the channels mobile television subscribers could view are CNN, BBC World and CNBC; a sports channel TV; and leisure entertainment channels such as Jack TV, Fashion TV and MTV Channel. (MSN/Sunnex)
