Sony Ericsson confirms working with Sony to realise mobile TV

More details confirmed on the story we broke in August

27 November 2006 0:52 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Sony Ericsson has confirmed rumours Pocket-lint first covered in August, that it is working with Sony to expand its cooperation beyond cell phones to mobile and broadband TV.

Per Nordlof, Ericsson's director of product strategy and portfolio management, said the companies will together develop software to link their products through wireless networks.

The news comes on the back of an interview with Pocket-lint which hinted Sony Ericsson using Sony's WEGA television branding for its mobile phones geared towards watching television.

"We have plans", Rikko Sakaguchi, Senior Vice President of Product and Application Planning told Pocket-lint in Malmo, Sweden, earlier in the year.

"There is a strong confidence between Ericsson and Sony after the success of the handset business and we will work to develop software that connects the gadgets in the homes with the outer world", he told journalists at a news conference.

"We see a mass market for mobile TV within 2 years", said Nordlof. "Broadband TV will be an important factor. Most telecom operators realize they will have to offer TV in order not to lose customers", Nordlof said.

In August, the company ruled out the possibility of launching a handset with a DVB-H tuner that allows you to watch digital television on the go.

It is expected that Sony will use its LocationFree TV offering which launched earlier this year and can also be found in its new console - the PS3.

The technology allows users to stream programs from a PVR at home to anywhere in the world via an internet connection to a users PSP.

If Sony and Sony Ericsson used the same technology, there is no reason the two could offer a similar service via a 3G or HSDPA connection.