TV on your phone - is it really the way of the future or just clever gimmickry? We looked at both major services to see who’s better, who costs more, and should you even be interested.
In what's shaping up to be a mobile TV duopoly, Telstra (Foxtel) and Vodafone remain the only competitive players in this small, but growing segment of the 3G marketplace.
It may not be on everyone's radar just yet, but we imagine as 3G speeds and content options increase with time, the mobile TV market is set for explosive growth over the next couple of years.
We put both services through seven gruelling rounds and scored each product at the end of every round to see which was best.
Round 1: Channels & Cost
Vodafone Live
What do you need to get started?
A Vodafone Live! capable handset. You’ll need to connect to the Vodafone network and purchase credit to use the services, which also include online browsing. We tested the mobile TV service on the Sony Ericsson W910i.
Package 1) News & Sports - Sky News, Sky sports, BBC World, FOX SPORTS News TV, Sky News Sport, Billabong TV (surfing), The Footy show, All Aussie footy News, Team Vodafone News, Football News, Sky weather, Sky Business, Sky UK, Sky top stories, Sky News Eco Channel. Cost: $8/month
Package 2) Music & Entertainment - MTV, South Park, Nickelodeon, TMF (music), Summer Heights High, The Chaser, Landline (rural news features), Mythbusters, E!, MavTV (hot chicks and gadgets), Sky Showbiz News. Cost: $8/month
Package 3) Rugby - Fox Sports Rugby TV (Rugby Union games, Super 14, etc.) Cost: $8/month
Free to air content? Yes, SBS and ABC live channels.
Costs: Each packages costs $8/month
Best channels deal? The Bumper Pack gets you all the packages and channels for $14.95/month.
Free TV? Yes, it’s really free. As much as we doubted this, there are three half-decent channels in this section to choose from – Street TV, Ninemsn TV and clips from Australian Idol.
Street TV is a nice mix of interviews with artists, filmmakers and culture cats. ninemsn TV takes a supply of Channel 9 network footage and edits them into brief snippets – a mix of footy show antics, Getaway stories, Tropfest, Funniest Home Videos and their current affairs programmes.
18+ content? While we didn’t get past the Parental lock system, we're sure these channels will prove popular. The Adult TV channel cost $8 per day/ $15 per month.
Strangest channel offering? Naked News in brief – sure to generate a few giggles down the back of the bus. In second place for oddness, MavTV feels totally amateur and a little bikini heavy (is that a bad thing?).
TV on demand? Yes, you can purchase classic and modern TV shows from as little as $2.50 (Chaser, Mythbusters, etc).
Most popular channels? (1.) Southpark ( 2.)MTV (3.) FOX Sports, (4.) Summer Heights High (5.) Sky News
What’s lacking? Although purely subjective, we would've liked to have seen some rugby league content, a dedicated movie channel (which dosn't exist on either service strangely enough), and a couple of dedicated comedy and documentary channels.
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