New channels on Vodacom Mobile TV

Hi, just received this in my inbox (might be of interest to someone)

VODACOM’S MOBILE TV SERVICE ADDS NEW GLOBAL ENTERTAINMENT CHANNELS

18 January 2006

On 1 December 2005 Vodacom launched the first Mobile TV entertainment service on Vodafone live! 3G cellphones. From 16 January, Vodacom customers in South Africa can watch two new TV channels, Sky NEWS and HBO, as well as the hit TV series ‘24’, which is now available on the Fox channel.
“As we enter 2006 some of the world's best-known channels and programmes are being made available on Vodafone live! 3G cellphones. With Mobile TV Vodacom is proving yet again to be at the forefront of advanced mobile technology, setting the trends for content on cellphones in South Africa,” says Pieter Uys, Vodacom’s Chief Operating Officer.
Currently the Fashion TV (FTV) and Sky NEWS channels are both simulcast TV channels, as seen on traditional television. The HBO channel is a ‘made for mobile’ channel and includes full episodes of programs such as ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’.
“The sound quality and total user experience is carried to another level when a customer uses earphones while watching TV on their cellphone. You’ll be able to watch a full episode of ‘Six Feet Under’ on your Vodafone live! cellphone while you’re waiting at the car wash” says Uys.
The Fox channel, which has been available since launch, is now featuring mobisodes (mobile shortened versions of the full episode) of the hit TV series ‘24’. The new three-minute mobisodes are derived from each of the 96 previously produced episodes of ‘24’ from its first four seasons and each season can be watched in 60 minutes.
The HBO and Sky NEWS channels will complement the wide choice of TV channels and programmes already available to Vodafone live! 3G customers including: E! Entertainment, Fashion TV (FTV), TellyTrack, UEFA Champions League, Fox, Ministry of Sound, Chilli TV, Yebo Entertainment, including Yebo 1 and Yebo 2 and a Free Preview channel. ‘Mobi-soaps’, the mobile cellphone version of TV soaps includes Conspiracy 24, Love & Hate, and Sunset Hotel.
“It has always been easy for Vodafone live! customers to watch music videos, download real-tones and play games on their Vodafone live! cellphones. Now customers with Vodafone live! 3G cellphones can open a whole new world of entertainment with just a simple click on the Vodafone live! icon” Uys said.

ENDS

Issued By: Magna Carta PR
Mari-Louise Esterhuizen
Tel: +27 (0)11 784 2598
On behalf of: Fathima Beckmann
Managing Executive: Corporate Communications: Vodacom SA

Tel: +27 (0)11 653 5000

HBO!!!!
This is amazing!
I was hoping that iTunes would sign up HBO, but this is even better. Does anyone know the price of this service?
Petty the D600 isn't 3G. Would make a nice screen for watching TV


EDIT : I see on the vodacom site it says R10 a day, which isn't too bad, but it says that the offer expires on 31 Jan. I wonder what the new price will be

Wasn't that R10 for 10 minutes a day?! I'm already paying for the bandwidth, how come I have to pay twice! This should be free. They make more than enough already.

Quite right.

The video streaming is not part of your data bundle. Like VLife, you pay for the content. In this case there is a charge per time unit.

This is very, very tempting. But not willing to go with any of those ugly 3g phones. The only phone I like currently is the D600, so I am just going to have to wait until Samsung release a 3g version of it

I was hoping we would get BBC World instead of Sky news. Sky news is complete rubish.

You pay R10 and you can watch the WHOLE day, but you do get disconnected every 10 minutes

vodacom3g said:

The video streaming is not part of your data bundle. Like VLife, you pay for the content. In this case there is a charge per time unit.

Click to expand...

Huh?!

So I get a get a 3G datacard, 3G phone, 3G router and 1 GB of data, but I can't use it for VLive.

That doesn't work for me.

With normal internet use, you pay for the data you send or receive. Nothing new here. This is how it works over the internet and internetvpn APN's.

With some services, Blackberry for example, you pay a fixed monthly fee for the service, independent of the amount of data you use.

With VLive you can browse the VLive portal as much as you like and won't pay for the data. When you buy something (a ringtone for example), you only pay for that item you bought. When you navigate way from the VLive portal, you pay for the data again.

Video content on VLive will be the same, you pay for the content, not the data.

Pretty much so.

Because royalties and other costs must be paid to the content provider, you pay for the content. I would assume the pricing will have some recovery for data but not nearly at the normal data rates.

Guess I won't be using it then.

You actually score.

If you had to browse another site selling content, you would pay your normal data rates for browsing the site and then if you decide to buy something, you pay for that as well.

With VLive the browsing is free.

let me get this straight.... For R10 per day we can stream tv for as many 10 min sessions as we want.....which is a lot of data traffic, BUT if we so much as open a web page we must pay R2/meg.........loose loose situation

I was under the impression it is R10, and you only get 10 minutes/day.
Thus R30 and 3 days to watch an episode of Curb your enthusiasm. Without the ad breaks it will be about 22 minutes. So you could watch the first 20 minutes, and ask someone how it ended, or use 3 sessions, and spend the remaining 8 minutes on sky news.

Or will programmes be sold as a unit?

In the promotion period it's R10/10 minutes, but as someone noticed you only get charged once a day.....

vodacom3g said:

In the promotion period it's R10/10 minutes, but as someone noticed you only get charged once a day.....

Click to expand...

What a rip off.
I prefer the idea of a fixed monthly fee of say R50 for unlimited MobileTV or maybe R20 per channel.
If you really what to promote this then make it R5 for 24 hours or free.
People do not want hundreds of Rands added to their bill each month, most are already paying for this content via DSTV at R400 pm.

MrSmith said:

What a rip off.
I prefer the idea of a fixed monthly fee of say R50 for unlimited MobileTV or maybe R20 per channel.

Click to expand...

There will always be the early adoptors paying a premium for the bragging rights. When they sober up and see their bill they will get wise and prices will change through lack of interest. Greedy vodacon cashing in again!

Just want to mention i've been trying to read up on this whole Mobile TV thing and have found the COSTS either missing or unclear. There is this big flash site and i couldn't find ANY indication of what the Modile TV bit costs. They can throw big ads at me with "24" and "Six Feet Under" Episodes showing, until i see the COST i usually do not take the bait.

http://www.vodafonelive.co.za/base.php?section=home

Worse, some of the costs [i.e News/Sport] are confusing as hell, like "R5 per day OR R20 p/month"...huh? Is it just me seeing something SERIOUSLY wrong with that? [why would you pay R5 per day if you can get an entire month for R20 ?] ....

I further assume "news and entertainment" [which costs R5 p/day OR R10 p/month] providing "tv schedules" and all kinds of "tv" things, are not "Mobile TV" ...confusing? I assume you have to subscribe to "news and entertainment" to get to "Mobile TV" and then FURTHER subscribe for each show?.....

So what's the deal? Am i missing the special fineprint section, or is there so many hidden costs that Vodacom rather not put up clearly [and let us find out the hard way] ?