NDTV Launches Mobile Channel

New Delhi, Dec 18 (UNI) New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), a leading private producer of news, current affairs and entertainment television, has launched the first full service, user-aware mobile channel 'NDTV Active' in collaboration with July Systems, a premier provider of mobile solutions for media, entertainment and sports brands.

This initiative will enable NDTV to leverage its extensive programming assets to provide users ''anytime anywhere access'' to personalised services, content and promotions on their mobile phones.

'NDTV Active' was formally launched yesterday after undergoing internal testing for over a month and will be available to subscribers of all Indian mobile operators.

The service features first-of-its-kind personalised sports, business and entertainment news, 'real-time' video updates, photo galleries, personalised alerts, cricket scores, interactive services like polls, comments, sharing with friends and content downloads.

'NDTV Active' will offer users a personalised, interactive and completely customisable multimedia mobile experience that go far beyond the simple wallpaper, ringtone and content downloads that most portals offer today.

''The NDTV Active mobile channel will give users a great new way to interact with the NDTV brand and stay in touch with the latest news, information and favorite shows anytime and anywhere,'' said Sanjay Trehan, CEO, NDTV Convergence.

''We worked on this concept with a defined need for a 'full service mobile channel' with user personalisation, real-time updates, inter-activity and an integrated brand experience to our users by extending our relationship with the consumer from our TV and online properties to mobile. This will be enhanced with a lot more inter-activity and services over the next couple of months,'' he said.

Rajesh T S Reddy, Co-Founder and President, July Systems, said the NDTV Active mobile channel would leverage July's SmartMedia Solution, which has already been adopted by some of the leading media, entertainment and sports companies worldwide.

Using innovative mobile 2.0 features like personalised services, real-time video, multimedia alerts, interactivity, sharing, tagging and on-device agents, this would set a new benchmark for the way media and entertainment brands should extend their presence to mobile, he said.

With a base of over 200 million mobile subscribers and over five million new subscribers added every month, India is one of the world's fastest growing and potentially lucrative wireless markets.

Mr Reddy said data service usage, driven by the strong and steadily growing subscriber base, is expected to show continued brisk growth, opening up a new channel for Indian media, entertainment, sports, and content brands to reach their consumers.

July's solutions are currently deployed for leading music labels, film studios, television channels and sports brands in the US and Europe.

UNI