The first full-fledged mobile television channel devoted to broadcast live sports, news and entertainment has just been announced in Milan, Italy.

Mobile tv phone - LG U900

Called "La3" (The Three), the new all-Italian television channel broadcasts by utilizing DVB-H technology which allows direct reception from a new generation of new mobile videophones already available on the market.

With this technology, La3 crowns itself as the premier Italian mobile television provider and it expects to reach up to 70% of the Italian mobile and connected population. DVB-H allows one broadcaster to transmit up to 20 or more interactive television channels simultaneously and within the spectrum provide by one license.

La3 has recently completed a full round of tests and is preparing itself to deliver, with full exclusive for mobile media, the hottest live sport event of the year (at least for Europeans): the World Soccer Championship to take place from June to July in Germany

Following such premier event, La3 will be offering to its customers live soccer matches for the next Serie A tournament (2006-2007), motorbike racing, and more.

Live transmissions of La3 will start in three months from now, at the beginning of June, with a portfolio of 15 content channels. Of these some will be provided by Sky TV (Sky Cinema, Sky Sport, Sky Vivo e Sky TG24), while at least one more channel will be offering the best of Italy's Prime Minister Berlusconi three commercial channels Canale 5, Rete 4, Italia 1). A cartoon channel is also certainly part of the initial offering probably together with an all-music channel. RAI, Italy's state television network, is still negotiating the inclusion of its key three main channels.

An additional channel, originated by La3 itself, will provide a live ongoing guide about La3 programming as well as hosting the Media Shopping channel, dedicated to tele-sales. Three more channels (La3 Star, La3 Sport and La3 Show), will also be part of the initial offering and will be entirely produced by La3 itself.

Then, before the end of this year, five additional mobile television channels will be added, to provide access to service and citizen-oriented content as well as to public services addressing language minorities.

To become the first and only Italian mobile media company, La3 has acquired an existing television channel: Canale 7.

The mobile television market is estimated to be made up of 300 millions users at the end of this year (source: Nokia) . In Italy this market is expected to reach 7 million users in 4-5 years and to generate a business of over three billion euros (source: consultazione pubblica Ministero delle Comunicazioni).

With this announcement, Italy remains among the top leading countries adopting and commercializing mobile communication technologies. In Europe, Italy is among the leading countries in terms of broadband deployment, IPTV, UMTS and mobile TV.

Mobile tv phone - LG U900 - tivufonino

The consumer technology that is already available to receive mobile television broadcasts while on the move has been premiered by LG, which with its own U900 is the first television mobile phone to become available. It weighs on 110 grams while sporting a 2,2" panoramic TFT display capable of 262 thousands colors. The U900 is also equipped with a video camera with a 1,3 Mpixels resolution. To follow next it will be Samsung with its new Stealth model.