Sprint announced the nationwide launch of a wireless service that offers streaming video and audio content. The Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Phone MM-A700 by Samsung will be the first CDMA device in the United States to deliver streaming audio and video content from familiar sources such as CNN, NBC, FOX Sports, The Weather Channel, E! Entertainment, mFlix, Twentieth Century Fox, AccuWeather and 1KTV.
Sprint said users will be able to access more than 600 new streaming video and audio clips every day, covering the latest news, weather, sports and entertainment.
The Samsung MM-A700 phone by Samsung enables customers to listen and view audio/video clips on-demand in real time directly from the phone's 262K TFT full-color screen. The content, decompressed and played on the embedded media player, is directly streamed to the handset from the CDMA1X Sprint PCS Vision network at 15 frames per second (fps). The phone also features a megapixel camera and digital camcorder, and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) quality.
Initially, Sprint will offer 10 channels to choose from for accessing audio and video content. Content can be accessed in two primary categories:
1) My Channels: a 'basic cable' type package consisting of:
- Ch. 1 = Sprint TV, which is a compilation of content from NBC, FOX Sports, The Weather Channel and more. The content and technology for Sprint TV are being delivered by MobiTV.
- Ch. 20 = Twentieth Century Fox, that offers free movie trailers;
- Ch. 49 = The Preview Channel, which offers free previews of all
channels; and - Ch. 24 = Athens on Location - free summer games highlights from NBC
through Aug. 29.
2) Premium Channels: this is a more in-depth service that provides more content more frequently as determined by the channel content providers. The additional premium services channels available at launch are:
- Ch. 2 = CNNtoGO - $4.95/month
- Ch. 3 = FOX Sports - $4.95/month
- Ch. 4 = The Weather Channel - $4.95/month
- Ch. 5 = 1KTV - $4.95/month
- Ch. 7 = mFlix - $4.95/month
- Ch. 8 = E! Entertainment - $4.95/month
- Ch. 14 = AccuWeather - $3.95/month
