Submitted by Mike Grenville on Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:27

Consumers will be able to send and receive SMS while watching live, free broadcast TV on their mobile

Mobile TV specialists Telegent Systems recently announced with Taiwanese handset manufacturer, Arima, an enhanced its free-to-air TV handset design incorporating Telegent’s mobile TV technology to enable consumers to send and receive SMS messages while watching live, free broadcast TV.

Since December of last year, subsidiaries of América Móvil and Telefónica including Telcel in Mexico, Claro Argentina, COMCEL Colombia, and Movistar in Mexico and Peru – have deployed multiple models of Telegent-enabled TV handsets that allow consumers to receive live, free-to-air broadcast TV programs – without additional cost. In February this year Telegent Systems announced that it has shipped more than 20 million mobile TV receivers since its products became available on the market in mid-2007.

The SMS-TV feature adds an interactive layer to Free-to-air mobile TV viewing allowing mobile users to chat with each other during their favourite TV programs and will be commercially available in handset designs this summer.

Because the phones use the existing broadcast ecosystem and TV content, operators are able to deliver the TV feature to customers without a significant financial investment in infrastructure and content

“Free-to-air TV handsets are extremely popular with consumers in our core markets,” said Stephen Hung, vice president of Arima. “In Latin America and other regions, operators are adding TV handsets to their portfolios. If a consumer is watching soccer and can send an SMS to a friend about the game, this interactive action can drive revenue for the operator and increases the value of the free-to-air TV feature.”

When activated, Arima’s SMS-TV feature automatically scales the TV screen to accommodate an SMS message window beneath it to allow sending and receiving of SMS messages. The SMS-TV feature can be implemented in both low-cost and feature phone models.