Mobile TV - it's happening in Malaysia

Thanks to faster networks and better phone capabilities, Malaysians can use their handsets to take photos, listen to music, trade stocks, shop and now watch live news clips.

Telcos in Malaysia are now offering live news feeds to their mobile phone users. Early this year, Maxis partnered Astro provider Measat Broadcast Network Systems to broadcast real-time streaming videos of the satellite TV's CNBC and hitz.tv channels. Subscribers can also check out pre-recorded clips from channels such as AXN, National Geographic and popular Astro shows.

Response to Maxis' offering has been better than expected. Karim Abdul Malik, Maxis' head of product development and management, revealed that 98,000 subscribers have signed up for its video streaming service so far - it had initially projected 70,000 subscribers by year-end.

"To date, we have more than 10,000 active pre-paid and post-paid customers subscribing to Video Live," he told silicon.com sister site CNETAsia.

Despite the positive response, the operators still face several hurdles and it remains to be seen if Malaysians indeed will be keen to watch these live broadcasts on their tiny mobile phone screens.

Karim concedes that one of the main challenges is to provide clear transmission for better picture and sound clarity. Other challenges, he said, include building awareness, educating the market and laying the groundwork for a generation of people who would watch news clips on the phone.

He added that more innovative services are on the cards but did not reveal any details.

Meanwhile, DiGi's head of mobile Erik Aas seems to think that offering an affordable pricing plan is the key. "We expect our Mobile TV service to garner encouraging response and increase our mobile data revenue considerably, as we have seen positive trends with the offering of all our new mobile data services packages," he said.

DiGi's pre-paid and post-paid customers in the Klang Valley can now watch live television service over local terrestrial channel, ntv7 on their EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) enabled handsets. The programmes include pre-recorded highlights from TV3's Misteri Nusantara, 8TV's 8 Live Chart Show, Flava and Latte @8, and Feng Shui from Nanyang Online.

To encourage the uptake for MobileTV services, DiGi is offering mobile users unlimited viewing for RM14.90 (£2.20/$3.90) a month. "They can watch MobileTV content for as long as they want without being concerned about the file sizes," Aas said.

In comparison, Maxis subscribers get to enjoy unlimited viewing of Video Live content for only RM10 (£1.47/$2.60) a month.

Aas declined to give any revenue projections for the new MobileTV service but said that DiGi is targeting "several thousand customers" for products and services on its EDGE platform. Last quarter, DiGi's mobile data services accounted for 14 per cent of its total revenue.

Cordelia Lee writes for CNETAsia.