Movies come to UK iTunes

British iTunes users will be able to download hit movies for rent or purchase for the first time, Apple has announced.

More than 700 films will be available to British users with more than 100 available in high-definition.

The movies can be watched on iPods, iPhones and Apple TVs, as well as laptops and computers.

[via Metro]

Shared Solitary Serial Experiences

Two Tokyoites - on the right of the photo engaged in the same task watching the same television program on their mobile phone each using their own device, with comments passed back and forth. Shared experiences, yet personal device ownership gently separating the experience compared to current norms.

A fabulous picture from everyone's favourite Jan Chipchase.

Samsung joins forces with LG, Harris on mobile TV

Samsung Electronics is combining efforts with fellow Korean electronics maker LG Electronics to develop a new standard for mobile TV broadcasts, the companies announced Wednesday.

Their technology will be competing with two others to become the standard for mobile TV, a decision that rests with the TV industry's technical standards-setting body for digital broadcasts.

[via Reuters]

NBC Streaming Full Episodes of 30 Rock and the Office to iPhones

NBC is streaming full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office to iPhones (and touches) in Quicktime, for free, with no ads.

[via Gizmodo]

Mobile TV Spreading in Europe and to the U.S.

Every day in Switzerland, 40,000 people watch a 100-second television news broadcast on their cellphones. In Italy, a million people pay as much as 19 euros each ($29) a month to watch up to a dozen mobile TV channels. The New York Times reports.

"... Japan is the leader in direct mobile television, with 20 million cellphones equipped with TV receivers, followed by South Korea with 8.2 million, according to In-Stat, a research and consulting firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

In-Stat estimated that there were 29.7 million mobile TV viewers worldwide at the end of 2007. That is expected to almost double, to 56.9 million, at the end of 2008, driven by growth in Japan.

Italy has been an early leader in Europe, with service beginning in 2006. The largest mobile TV broadcaster on the Continent is 3 Italia, a cellular operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong, with 800,000 customers, about 10 percent of its total phone clients. The million Italian viewers watch up to a dozen channels."

AT&T to spend millions to push TV service on cell phones

AT&T Inc. will promote its new live TV service for mobile phones with a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, a bid to popularize the idea of watching TV on handsets. The service, operated by Qualcomm Inc., will be available today (Sunday).

[via the Chicago Sunday Times]

CinemaNow to offer movie orders via cell phone

Privately held digital entertainment provider CinemaNow said on Tuesday that U.S. consumers would be able to use their cell phones to view movie trailers and order full-length movies to watch on their home television or computer through its mobile website.

The service, offered on Web-capable phones at href="http://uvumobile.mobi/cn">http://uvumobile.mobi/cn, would let U.S. consumers immediately buy or rent a movie when they hear about a new offering while they are out with friends.

[via Reuters]

Full-length shows, even movies, growing on cellular

Forget short clips and "mobisodes." Cellphone providers are ramping up their full-episode TV offerings, from "Lost" to "The Office", and even movies. USA Today reports.

"Today, only about 7% of mobile subscribers (cell and data) watch video on their phones, he says. But the industry is poised for major growth: Mobile video revenues at domestic carriers jumped to $308 million in the last three months of 2007 from $112 million in the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen Mobile.

... Mobile users are willing to watch for extended periods, says Nielsen Mobile's Nic Covey. Nearly half (47%) say their average session lasts 15 minutes or longer; 25% watch 30 minutes or more.

Says Covey: "Enough consumers watch mobile video for those lengths of time and enough consumers are interested in name-brand programming that this level of mobile viewing could be just as big an opportunity as clips."

Hulu Video Service Going Mobile?

Talking at the National Association of Broadcasters convention, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar implied that their video service could be moving to mobile phones, saying that they're "ripe for the Hulu experience."

[via Gizmodo]

Local TV Station Owners Push Mobile TV

According to the AP, owners of more than 800 local TV stations where ad revenue has plunged recently said they've formed a group that's testing three standards for s ending local digital TV signals to cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices.

"The Open Mobile Video Coalition said at the National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas that it will push for an open standard by next year that would allow members to bypass cell phone companies and tap into what they think will be a $2 billion market for mobile advertising.

The station owners say transmitting directly to mobile devices would give them a third means of delivering local programming - and capturing revenue - along with broadcasting to TVs and streaming it on station-owned Web sites."

New Satellite Will Supply TV To Cell Phones

A satellite that could affect cell phone service headed for space Monday afternoon, reports Orlando's Wesh 2.

The satellite is designed to provide 10 to 15 live television stations for mobile phones in the future. It is powerful enough to not require a dish to receive broadcast.

It's first-of-its kind technology. It cost an estimated $500 million to build, launch and test the TV satellite."

Television could be streamed to iPhones

According to The Guardian, two leading UK broadcasters are exploring a service that would allow live streaming of their programmes to Apple's iPhone.

"London-based web TV technology specialist Best Before has developed server-based technology called Millicent that allows a broadcaster or other content producer to provide an edited video feed to be watched on the iPhone without needing to hack into the handset.

iPhone users would be able to view live TV on their handset through Safari, the Apple device's web browser, using a local wireless network. The iPhone's data connection through the Edge network would also work but would be less reliable."

France Telecom signs with HBO, Warner and Gaukmont

France Telecom has signed contracts with a number of film companies, including HBO, Warner and Gaumont, as it seeks to become a major player in the movie distribution market, France Telecom's CEO said in an interview published in Les Echos newspaper.

France Telecom's Didier Lombard told Les Echos the company wants to offer more than 1 000 movies per year to viewers via cable television, Internet and mobile phone.

The films will be offered via six channels, and the client will build its own package of channels and pay a monthly subscription, Lombard told Les Echos.

France Telecom's offering will be a direct competitor to Vivendi's Canal Plus.

[via ITWeb]

Fox Business Channel debuts on MobiTV and 47% of US Consumers Don’t Know if they have Mobile TV

Mobile TV headlines:

-- Fox Business Channel debuts on MobiTV - Mobile entertainment services provider MobiTV announced a content licensing deal to offer Fox Business Network as a live, linear channel identical in programming scope to the version broadcast on cable and satellite. [via FierceMobile Content]

-- Nearly Half of U.S. Consumers Don’t Know if they have Mobile TV - A QuickPlay Media survey found that 47% of consumers don’t know whether or not their carrier offers mobile TV and video content. It seems as though service providers aren’t getting the word out about the wonders of mobile TV and video. [via MobileCrunch]

'Sopranos' on Canadian cell phones

Bell Canada on Tuesday began delivering full episodes of "The Sopranos" to its mobile phone subscribers as part of an agreement with HBO.

The Canadian phone giant's customers can also now watch on-demand episodes of "Entourage," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Tell Me You Love Me" and "Sex and the City" as well as stand-up comedy shows for CAN$10 ($9.75) a month plus browser usage fees.

The product is initially available in English-speaking Canada, with a dubbed French-language version set for launch in May.

[via Reuters/Hollywood Reporter]

Sony Films headed to Mobile Phones

Sony Pictures Television is looking to launch the first movie network on mobile phones in the United States.

"The studio has signed a deal with AT&T and MediaFlo USA to launch the linear channel as one of two exclusive channels coming to the newly announced AT&T Mobile TV with FLO service in May.

The channel, to be known as PIX, will be stocked with such titles as "Ghostbusters," "Philadelphia" and "Stand by Me."

[via Reuters/Hollywood Reporter]

Live from your mobile. The next big thing?

What would happen if everyone, anywhere, could have their own live television station from a mobile phone? The BBC has an idea.

"A number of services including Qik and Flixwagon, are competing to make "live" the next big thing in web video, and YouTube is poised to introduce its own live service.

... Eran Hess, the chief executive of Flixwagon, has made a deal with MTV which has seen the station give phones with Flixwagon software installed to what it calls "Street Journalists" to cover the primaries in the United States.

Their clips are shown live on the web - whether it's an Obama victory speech or vox pops with New York voters - and some make it onto MTV itself.

Eran Hess also revealed that he had just done a deal with an Israeli news channel which will supply similar phones to citizens in the towns of Sderot and Ashkelon where rockets fired from Gaza have been landing.

So a phone and a piece of software - and a 3g network - are you all need now to start putting your message across to a live audience. It promises to give new vigour to the whole idea of citizen journalism, and poses a challenge to existing broadcasters.

Because of course these citizen journalists are not bound by any code of taste, decency, truth or impartiality, which could give their broadcasts a dangerous, edgy quality which might appeal more to viewers than the professional version of television news.

Welcome to a future where everything may be televised - live. I'm not entirely sure I like the idea."

On Qik you can watch and listen to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, filmed by Robert Scoble for Fast Company.

Hands on with the BBC iPlayer - on the iPhone

The BBCiPlayer is now available as a beta for the iPhone and iPod touch. Streaming only, reports Tech.co.uk.

"We're not using the new Apple SDK, nor are we using the much-rumoured Flash for iPhone (no - we haven't seen it, either). Instead, we're creating 516Kbps streams (400Kbps H.264 video, 116Kbps AAC audio) that show off BBC programmes brilliantly on an iPhone," says Anthony Rose, head of Digital Media Technologies at the BBC in a blog post about the launch."

What is Robert Redford doing at Mobile World Congress?

Robert Redford will be participating at a keynote interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starting today.

Apparently topics will include the 4th screen (mobile phone screen) as a medium for independent filmmakers to reach new audiences on a global basis.

[via I4U]

Movie Phone plays movies on a disc

Spice Corp Ltd, a leading Indian telecoms Corporation, is showing several groundbreaking products at the Mobile World Congress 2008, including a Movie Phone: the world’s first phone to play movies on a disc.

Picture and specs on picturephoning.com.

China Not Redirecting Search-Engine Traffic to Baidu

Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai said attempts to access Google and other search engines were successful Friday, despite claims that traffic to these sites was redirected to Chinese search engine Baidu.com.

[via PC World]