UK operator Virgin Mobile, in partnership with BT Livetime, has announced plans for a four-month long, live digital TV service. The pilot will be available on selected handsets within the Greater London area.

Virgin has hand-picked 1,000 customers and other interested parties for the trial and according to a spokesperson it plans to use the pilot to study viewing patterns and behaviour in order to settle an internal debate over whether mobile TV customers prefer "bite-size mobisodes, such as the those launched on Vodafone live! or whether they prefer full programmes."

The service will be broadcast over the DAB digital radio network. The spokesperson said DAB offered a quicker route to market for Virgin than competing TV technology. "DVB-H uses spectrum that has yet to be allocated, and will be subject to auction in the next 12-18 months."

Last month O2 announced similar plans to pilot mobile TV in the Oxford area but using DVB-H technology (see last month's m-content section of MCI). The spokesperson suggested that perhaps O2 had chosen to go down this technology route in order to maximise its investment in its 3G licences.However, she noted that the rival UK operator would have to make further investments in updating its network prior to a national roll-out, and since Virgin had not invested heavily in the 3G licence auctions DAB represented the quicker and less expensive option.

Initially, the pilot will provide the selected Virgin Mobile customers with 24-hours a day access to Sky Sports News, Sky News and Blaze, a music channel designed specifically for mobile television, and to more than 50 digital radio channels.

The service also features an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), so customers can see what's on now, what's on later and set an alert to remind them when a given programme is about to start, up to a week ahead. Ultimately, Virgin Mobile TV will also let customers record programmes to watch later on their mobile.

Alongside BT Livetime, other key partners for the pilot are software giant Microsoft, UK broadcaster Sky, broadcast transmission group Arqiva (formerly NTL Broadcast), Taiwanese HTC, radio group GCap Media and its subsidiary Digital One.