UK's First Mobile TV Service, Orange TV, to Premiere Ashes Heroes in Exclusive Live Broadcast of ICC Super Series

UK's First Mobile TV Service, Orange TV, to Premiere Ashes Heroes in Exclusive Live Broadcast of ICC Super Series

LONDON, October 4/PRNewswire/ --

- World's First Live Sports Game Coverage on Mobile TV to Feature England Stars Flintoff, Pietersen and Harmison

- All ICC Super Series Games to be Broadcast Live to Orange Mobile TV Customers

- Orange Launch a Further 9 New Channels From EMAP, Endemol and Bloomberg

- New Nokia N70 'Great for TV' Handset

Today Orange launched a world's first for live sports broadcasting - a live cricket channel covering the ICC Super Series for Orange mobile TV users. The Cricket channel is one of eight new channels being added to the UK's first TV-on-the-mobile service, Orange TV (originally launched in May 2005) bringing the total number of channels available up to 16. The new channels are being launched for the Nokia 'great for TV' handsets, the N70, 6630 and 6680, available to buy in Orange stores and online at www.orange.co.uk, priced from free on contract.

The ICC Super Series will be the first cricket series ever to be broadcast live to mobiles and will feature Australia vs. the best in World Cricket including Ashes hero's 'Freddie' Flintoff, Steve Harmison, and Kevin Pietersen. The Super Series starts with three one-day events on 5th, 7th and 9th October with the test on 14-19th October Live coverage of the matches will be broadcast on Orange TV and replays available through the following day.

Running over the Orange high-speed 3G network, Orange TV, powered by MobiTV, builds on its existing line-up of channels allowing users to access a combination of live and made-for-mobile programmes, including 24hour TV stations Kerrang and Kiss, as well as ITN Weather and Reality TV, produced by Big Brother creator Endemol.

The full line up of channels now appearing on Orange TV:

1) Live ICC Super Series Cricket 2) ITN Weather 3) Bloomberg 4) Kiss 5) Kerrang 6) Bravo 7) The Reality Channel 8) Shorts TV 9) Maxx Sports (extreme sports)

Available from May 2005

10) Comedy Time 11) Toon World 12) Big Brother (no longer running) 13) Glastonbury 2005 (no longer running) 14) Cartoon Network 15) CNN 16) ITN News 17) Extreme sports 18) Fashion TV

"Orange is delighted to be able to expand the range of channels for the Mobile TV experience. Offering channels covering music, news, sports, cartoons, comedy, fashion, reality TV and now even the exciting ICC Super Series in Australia demonstrates our commitment to deliver the best content we can for our customers," said Max Taylor, head of 3G marketing, Orange UK.

"We're teaming up with the broadcasting industry at large to continue to expand the breadth and depth of our mobile TV service. We have 16 channels today and we will continue to sign more and more exciting channels & programming for our diverse audience. We have seen mobile TV is a major attraction for both Orange users and new customers, and are therefore working hard to ensure the development of relationships with the best content providers."

The Nokia N70 provides cutting edge 3G performance whilst being optimised for TV. The handset features a powerful 2 megapixel camera with 20x digital zoom and integrated flash. The phone offers the latest in multimedia technology with two-way video calling, real time video sharing and image editors, Orange Music Player download service, and expandable MultiMediaCard (MMC) memory capability. The N70 battery delivers up to 3.5 hours of talk/TV viewing time and up to 11 days on standby.

Customers with great for TV handsets (1) like the Nokia N70 can download the Orange TV application, from Orange World and access it for free for seven days as part of the Orange TRY before you buy TV offer. Orange TV is available to both contract and Pay-As-You-Go customers, with users paying a simple monthly fee of GBP10 to access the channels (2). Customers wanting to see Orange TV in action should visit Orange retail stores.

(1) Great for TV handsets include: Nokia N70, Nokia 6680 and Nokia 6630.

(2) Terms apply.

Notes to editors

Orange TV Viewing Statistics

Big Brother topped 30% of the audience share at its peak (beginning and end of the series - June and August). However, during the month of July, CNN overtook Big Brother as the most watched channel. The American news giant took an 18% share, closely followed by ITN (16%) with Big Brother coming in third (15%).

Statistics for July:

- CNN - 18% audience share - ITN - 16% audience share - Big Brother - 15% audience share - Cartoon Network - 10% audience share - Extreme TV - 7% audience share

Where/when do people watch Orange TV:

- During work breaks (36.1%) - While travelling (18.5%) - Waiting for friends or in a queue (12.6%) - At home (10.1%)

About Orange

Orange, wirefree and any other Orange product or service referred to in this release are trademarks of Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd.

In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population, and offers roaming to pay monthly customers on 393 networks in 156 countries and to pay as you go customers on 131 networks in 67 countries.

At the end of June 2005, Orange had over 14.4 million active UK customers.

In October 2005, Orange won the Mobile Choice Consumer Awards - voted for by readers of Mobile Choice magazine - for Best Network Operator for the fifth year running.

In May 2005, Orange gained the top ranking for customer satisfaction among mobile phone contract customers in the annual J.D.Power and Associates 2005 UK Mobile Telephone Customers Satisfaction Study. It is the seventh time Orange has been ranked top by the study.

Information about Orange can be found on the Orange website at www.orange.co.uk and media information can be found at www.orange.com

Source: Orange

For further information, call the Orange media centre on +44-207-984-2000 or +44-7973-201-911

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