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BSkyB’s new Sky Mobile TV service (see [itvt] Issue 6.39 Part 3) is apparently proving successful. The company says that in the first two weeks after the service’s November 1st launch on Vodafone UK’s "Vodafone live! with 3G" service (the service will be exclusive to Vodafone UK customers until March 31st), Vodafone live! with 3G customers accessed a million streams of mobile channels (note: as of September 30th, there were 341,000 Vodafone live! with 3G customers). That figure does, however, include viewing of additional variety channels, such as Channel 4, which are not part of the Sky Mobile TV service. "These figures demonstrate a real consumer appetite for mobile TV," BSkyB’s director of business development, Stephen Nuttall, said in a prepared statement. "As 3G take-up grows, we believe that many more people will enjoy access to news and entertainment on the move. This is a strong start for an innovative new service."

Two Sky Mobile TV packages are available, which together offer a total of 19 channels: the "News, Sport & Factual" package includes Sky News, CNN, Bloomberg, Sky Sports News, At The Races, Discovery Factual, the National Geographic Channel, and the History Channel; while the "Entertainment & Music" package includes Sky One, Sky Movies, MTV, Living tv, Discovery Lifestyle, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Bravo, and the Biography Channel. Sky says that additional channels will launch on the service in the coming months, including a second MTV channel and the Paramount Comedy channel, both of which will be available on the service’s Entertainment & Music package later this year. Some of the service’s channels are broadcast live, while others are "made-for-mobile" services featuring regularly updated blocks of programming. In order to encourage uptake of Sky Mobile TV, BSkyB is offering both of the service’s packages free-of-charge (subject to Vodafone customer fair usage policy) until the end of January. Thereafter, each package will cost £5 per month. The company is also promoting the launch of the service by providing free, live coverage on it of the England cricket team’s tour of Pakistan, which began November 12th: a special Sky Sports Mobile channel provides coverage of the tour’s three Test Matches and five One-Day Internationals. In addition to Sky Mobile TV, BSkyB plans to shortly launch a service that will allow customers who subscribe to certain Sky programming packages to access news, sports, and weather updates on their mobiles.

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