Virgin's Mobile TV dies

The telco provides the bandwidth to run the service, but now says that punters are simply not interested in getting such content on their phones.

BT had expected to sign up other mobile phone companies to launch similar products, but this failed to happen either.

The idea has been beset with problems since it was first mooted. First there were not the handsets.

Virgin seemed to be the best bet in getting such an idea working. It launched its mobile TV service to much fanfare in October. It spent £2.5m on advertising which featured the silicon-based former Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson.

But since the service was based on a standard that utilised digital radio spectrum only a limited number of channels could be offered to consumers. It also needed a special handset, dubbed the "Lobster", that was much larger and less attractive than most other mobile phones.

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