29/11/2005

H3G Italia is entering the television sector, with revolutionary consequences for the Italian radio-television system and market. Last Saturday, the telephone company of the Anglo-Chinese Hutchinson Whampoa corporation announced the acquisition of Canale 7, a television network of the Profit Group of Raimondo Lagostena, owner of a national television licence with digital technology. Although not officially declared, the overall value of the operation is estimated at 30-35m euro. H3G was at the centre of controversy recently after announcing it wanted to offer the paid download on mobile phones of a newly released film (The Interpreter).

H3G Italia has decided to invest approximately 220m euro in developing Digital Video Broadcasting: Handhelds (DVB-H) , the technology with which terrestrial digital television is transmitted on cell phones. The 4.8 million clients of 3 Italia will be the first to test the synergy between terrestrial digital and the UMTS videophone network. Just a few weeks ago, a similar accord was announced for the non-exclusive distribution of Mediaset content on Telecom Italia (Tim) cell phones. This would appear then to be the new frontier of telephone operators. H3G Italia CEO Vincenzo Novari’s plans include broadcasting 20 TV channels by the second half of 2006 on 3’s UMTS phones, which would cover 70 percent of the territory.

(Translated from Italian)