press release

release detail

Channel 4 Enhances Mobile Offering with Volantis Storefront

Extension of existing agreement enables TV broadcaster to develop a broad variety of new original mobile content

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, September 5, 2006 - Volantis, the world’s leading supplier of Intelligent Content Adaptation™ solutions for the Mobile Information Age, today announced that Channel 4 has engaged in a new licensing agreement to merchandize a broad variety of rich media content for the UK television broadcaster’s mobile services offering.   

Channel 4’s mobile service went live in May 2005, with a mobile portal developed and hosted as a managed service by Volantis.  The new platform – based on Volantis’ Mobile Content Storefront™ - provides Channel 4 with a low-cost, low-risk solution to further expand its brand into mobile.

In 2006 mobile has become a key part of Channel 4’s overall new media strategy and as a consequence Channel 4 has migrated to a licensing agreement that will support the development of new, unique material for mobile devices.  The new agreement will also broaden Channel 4’s presence with carriers by delivering an enhanced portal offering.

According to Riccardo Donato, Head of Telephony – Business Development at Channel 4 New Media, “Upgrading to a license gives us more control over the development of content and the flexibility to change the service and experiment with new features. We are now able to dynamically deliver the best editorial content and better represent the whole range of Channel 4’s output.”

“Channel 4 was the first terrestrial broadcaster to launch a mobile portal, demonstrating its commitment to the mobile sector.” said Matthew Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Volantis. “We are pleased to expand our relationship with one of the leading content companies in the world.”

With Volantis Mobile Content Storefront™, wireless carriers and content providers can manage, sell and promote a wide variety of mobile content—including wallpapers, ringtones, audio and video, streaming content, games and interactive content such as quizzes, polls, and competitions. Volantis’ Storefront includes personalization capabilities, and pricing and charging facilities that allow powerful merchandizing such as subscriptions, loyalty schemes and promotions.

Using Volantis technology, Channel 4’s mobile portal is optimized for individual handsets, ensuring each user enjoys a the best possible user experience, depending on the capabilities of the handset – all based on technology unique to Volantis. Volantis software recognizes more than 500 feature and performance attributes on over 3,200 mobile devices to generate the optimum content format for each device.

Channel 4 launched its mobile portal in May 2005 to coincide with the start of Big Brother 6.  At launch, viewers who used text messages to try and evict contestants received an SMS reply from Channel 4 with a link to the mobile portal where they could download exclusive video and pictures of the housemates.

The Channel 4 mobile portal now features Channel 4 News, a daily Hollyoaks catch-up service and clips from Desperate Housewives and Lost. It also encompasses quizzes, voting, competitions and music downloads. The service is currently a pay-per-download model although Channel 4 has also recently experimented with advertising.

Notes to Editors:

Channel 4 New Media - Mobile

Channel 4 New Media has become an integral part of a three-tier strategy to help sustain and strengthen Channel 4’s unique role in a fully digital world.  As part of this, Channel 4 is committed to exploiting opportunities on mobile platforms and is concentrating on two key areas:

1. Channel 4 Mobile Portal
To access text “MOBILE” to 83188.  The portal has a variety of news stories, video clips, ring-tones and logos from a range of Channel4 programming including Big Brother and Channel 4 News.  The portal also features preview & review clips, exclusive cast interviews and trailers for Desperate Housewives & Lost and Hollyoaks Weekender, a weekend only service featuring two 60-second packages available for each episode allowing viewers to catch up on the main storylines from the show

2. Channel 4 Short Cuts
Short Cuts is Channel 4’s made for mobile TV channel - phone-sized slices of Channel 4’s best entertainment, perfect for enjoying on the move.  Short Cuts gives you exclusive access to great Channel 4 programs like Hollyoaks, Lost, The IT Crowd, Green Wing, Smack the Pony, Bo’ Selecta!, Wife Swap and Faking It, so you'll never be bored again. There’s a fresh twenty-minute serving of catch-up, sneak peak and mini shows every day, so you can watch whenever and wherever you want.

Channel 4
The Channel Four Television Corporation is a publicly-owned not-for-profit broadcaster operating in the UK.  Its main public service channel, Channel 4, is a free-to-air service funded entirely by advertising and sponsorship.  Unlike the BBC, we do not receive licence fee funds.

Channel 4 also operates a number of other services, including the free-to-air digital TV channels E4 and More4, the subscription service FilmFour (which will be relaunched as a free-to-air channel in summer 2006), and an ever-growing range of online activities at channel4.com, including the broadband service FourDocs.  The FilmFour production division produces and co-produces feature films for the UK and global markets.

Volantis (www.volantis.com) is the world's leading supplier of Intelligent Content Adaptation™ solutions for mobile devices, providing applications, tools and platforms that solve the complexity of delivering optimized services to any mobile device.
Volantis’ extensive experience of serving content providers, mobile network operators, and enterprises, along with its standards leadership, enable a unique position for Volantis to create innovative technology for the Mobile Information Age that is more useful and more useable than the PC Internet of today.
Volantis is used around the world by organizations such as 3, Accenture, Channel 4, Cingular, CSC, Discovery, eBay.co.uk, FT.com, Hearst, HP, IBM, lastminute.com, MobileOne, Orange Poland, Reuters, Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Italia Mobile and Telenor Mobil and World Wrestling Entertainment. Volantis also Chairs the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Device Independence Working Group and is a Founding Member of the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.
Volantis global headquarters are in Seattle, USA, with offices in Guildford, UK, Hong Kong, China, Madrid, Spain and Krakow, Poland. Volantis is privately held with investors Accel Partners, Kennet Venture Partners, and SOFTBANK Europe Ventures.