When the service launches in early June, it will be available to the 11 million-plus people with devices equipped with a WindowsMobile Media player. Soon after, the free service will also be available across the U.S. to anyone with a mobile device running the Symbian or Palm operating systems and bundled with the current generation of media players. Because SmartVideo streams the music videos, rather than downloading them to the phone, delivery is faster and the copyright security of the songs is further protected.
The DMV Network is entirely supported by advertisements – both ad overlays during the videos and 15-second interstitial spots between them – and is available to consumers at no charge. Users will simply access the service through their phone or PDA’s public Internet browser, with no need to subscribe or to install any new software.
And then the hottest music videos from the biggest artists will be accessible anywhere in the U.S. SmartVideo streams at a minimum of 15 frames per second (FPS) on current 2.5G wireless networks, and at 24+ FPS on new 3G networks. Currently, there are approximately 70 million smartphone or PDA device models in the United States that support SmartVideo’s mobile video service.
Content on the free channels, beginning with one featuring Top 40 hits, will be programmed entirely by the DMV Network, which has more than 40,000 music videos, making it the second largest music video library in the world. SmartVideo and the DMV Network plan to launch additional channels – dedicated to urban, dance, country, and other music genres – in the near future.
Expect to pay $12.95 for the service.
