A Digicel cellular store on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston. - File

Digicel Jamaica announced on the weekend that it will be offering television and cable TV broadcasts directly to cellphones, a service for which customers will pay $20 per minute, the company told Wednesday Business.

But the service will be billed per second, said Ralf Ohlhausen, group products director.

Up to Tuesday, the company had not actually signed up anyone for the service which will only be accessible to owners of specific SonyEriccson and Nokia brands, but said more than 100,000 customers had viewed details about 'Digicel Live' on wapsdigicel.com.

CVM-TV and Hype-TV

For now, Digicel's mobile TV service will stream CVM-TV and Hype-TV programmes to subscribers to the service.

CVM is a national station, while Hype is a cable-based music station.

"We are currently in discussions with at least one other local provider and we expect these to be concluded and the channel live in the very near future," said Ohlhausen.

"Offered on a GSM/GPRS network, Digicel is the first mobile operator in the country to offer all live, all local mobile TV programming," he said.

The company, which refused comment on the size of the investment, plans to take the service regionwide, but is already offering roaming as a component.

Said Ohlhausen: "This service is very new and we are always looking at international best practice", sidestepping a query on whether there were any regulatory hurdles linked to roaming broadcasts.

The product manager also suggested that short term plans include programme diversification based on informal market feedback.

"We did informal checks with customers at different levels to gauge their interest in such a product as well as what they would like to see offered," he said.

"This was the basis on which Digicel chose to launch this service now with local TV content and with several different programming options to be added in 2007."

business@gleanerjm.com