Huge mobile TV showcase from Qualcomm and Abertis Telecom

Qualcomm and Abertis Telecom will bring a huge MediaFLO mobile TV demonstration to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. MediaFLO network will broadcast at MWC and throughout Barcelona. The showcase will have over 30 mobile TV channels, a wide variety of apps and services, and new devices for mobile TV.
Services and apps will include IP datacasting, [...]

RDF Media launches mobile television service with Mobile Streams

Mobile Streams will be mobilising the comedy portal of RDF Media’s internet division, RDF Digital. Content from Comedydemon.com will be distributed across the Mobile Streams network, including on-deck portals and off-deck sites like mobileComedy.mobi and Ringtones.com. Content will include clips from the spoof Japanese gambling gameshow, ‘Banzai’ and the comedy series, Bury the Hatchet, Word [...]

STOP! Hammertime application for iPhone from InfoMedia and MC Hammer

MC Hammer has announced the release of a “HammerTime” application for the iPhone. Developed by InfoMedia, the application will allow fans of the artist to follow his blog, track his concerts, watch his music videos and follow his Twitter posts.
From the release:
“I’m a big fan of creating premium content for the Internet” says MC Hammer. [...]

Mobile social networking is driving the mobile Internet in Europe

Analytics company comScore has reported that social networking is the biggest  draw for new users getting into the mobile Web. In November, 34 percent of MoSo users in Western Europe never accessed any other mobile web content. comScore also reports that this audience tends to be younger than average mobile web users, and has a [...]

Disney/ABC and ESPN launch full-length mobile TV with Verizon - how much more can we take?

Disney/ABC, ESPN and Verizon announced today that full-length news, entertainment and sports videos will be available on V CAST. Full episodes of shows like “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Lost” and “Hannah Montana,” be on V CAST the day after their television premiere.
Verizon customers will also be able to view more from ESPN, including short news [...]

Even more mobile TV! 3 UK and Mobix launch TV on demand

3 UK today announced it will launch a new on-demand mobile TV service with Mobix. 3 On Demand will give access to full episodes of shows like South Park, The Hills and Pimp My Ride UK.
Subscribers will pay between £1.29 and £1.99 for a week’s access to an episode. Mobix’s Adrenaline platform will allow [...]

Vringo goes on-portal with Sony Ericsson

Video ringtone providers Vringo announced today that its app is being pre-linked on Sony Ericsson’s Fun & Downloads portal. A link to the service will be prominently displayed in all Walkman phone’s Web browsers.
Vringo’s application is also available for Symbian, Java and Windows Mobile devices. It lets users create video, image and slideshow ringtones [...]

Channel 4 stops making any more mobile TV content - it’s not cost effective

Channel 4 plans to slash the mobile services it offers, including mobile content. The reductions are part of a cost-cutting plan. The broadcaster has been delivering mobile-specific content since 2005, but now plans to focus on automated content, like clips from hit shows.
Channel 4 has ended its ongoing relationship with mobile agency Que Pasa following [...]

Bytemobile gets patent for mobile video transcoding

Bytemobile has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued the company a new patent in the area of video transcoding. The new patent is No. 7,444,418 for Bytemobile’s “Transcoding Multimedia Information Within a Network Communication System.”
Transcoding?
Essentially, transcoding is the process of live streaming a video while re-coding it for a mobile device at [...]

Microsoft launches a mobile music download service - is it weak sauce?

Microsoft has announced its MSN Mobile Music service. The on-deck store sells full-track downloads, realtones and music videos. But they’re not DRM-free.
VidZone Digital Media is powering the service.. Licences with Sony Music, EMI and Warner Music Group mean that subscribers can access about one million tracks, 25,000 tones and 10,000 videos from day one.
Prices are [...]

Qualcomm gets huge mobile multimedia boost from AMD

Qualcomm today announced that it has purchased a huge chunk of graphics and multimedia assets from Imageon, AMD’s handheld business. The acquisition will drive the multimedia abilities of Qualcomm’s handsets.
As part of the roughly-$65 million agreement, Qualcomm is offering employment to various design and development teams from Imageon. The focus of those teams are 2D [...]

Mobile video service Vuclip enters mobile advertising with mKhoj

Vuclip, mobile video search provider, has announced that it will be using mKhoj for it’s mobile advertising services. mKhoj will provide ads on Vuclip’s mobile website, and will push the Vuclip search platform to the publishers and subscribers on the mKhoj mobile ad network.
From the release:
Amit Gupta, Co-Founder and VP Business Development, mKhoj said, “We [...]

Vodafone Portugal goes for quality and efficiency in mobile video with Ortiva

Ortiva Wireless announced today that it will be deploying it’s Video Optimization Gateway (mVOGTM) with Vodafone Portugal. The platform should dramatically increase the efficiency and quality of mobile video on the carriers network for Vodafone live! customers. Ortiva’s solution will be in place starting in Q1 2009.
mVOG works by adapting streaming video content in real [...]

Babelgum responds to GoMo about free mobile TV service

Yesterday I accused Vodafone and Bablegum’s new free mobile TV service of being “lukewarm”, because it offered only small clips of content. Today, I got a good email from Babelgum’s Media Relations Director, Andrea Giannotti, explaining the reason behind some of their choices.
From the email:
“The average length of our pieces of content is 5 min. [...]

Sony Ericsson makes mobile content available from kiosks - easier than browsing the mobile web?

Sony Ericsson has expanded its PlayNow service to special kiosks in Asia. The downloadable music and content from the service will be available in-store at the kiosks at more than 80 Sony Ericsson stores throughout Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore during the first phase of the rollout.
How do the kiosks work?

After buying a Sony Ericsson smartcard, [...]

Mobile News for Leaders