Canadians Catching Up with Live TV on the iPhone

[Michael Essany]

Canadian mobile carrier Bell has thrilled iPhone owners in Canada with the release of Bell Mobile TV, a new app letting Canadian viewers tune in on their mobile device to a plethora of TV channels. Included among them: CBC Newsworld, MTV, Muchmusic, Treehouse and The Weather Network. Most importantly for Canadian hockey fans, however, is live coverage of NHL games. And, yes, that includes coverage from the Vancouver Olympics.

Naturally, there are some less than ideal components to this arrangement for many, including that the app will only work on a 3G network - no WiFi compatibility. In addition, if you're going to get the app, you need be running iPhone 3.0 or later, and, of course, already a Bell subscriber. The app, which is free, just became available for download over the weekend.

With the demand for live TV growing at a rapid pace, Nokia today similarly introduced what some call an"iPhone-worthy" app dubbed "Sky Mobile TV: Live sports on the move." As simple as it sounds, with the mobile TV app, Sky customers (with certain Nokia handsets) are now able to view Sky Sports live on their mobile devices.

Meanwhile, broadcast television and cable networks continue to bleed ad revenue as the mobile realm for live television viewing seems to expand on a daily basis. It's something we were reminded of earlier this month with AT&T's much-awaited announcement that its 3G network will now support the SlingPlayer Mobile TV app.

Image via Canadian Bell

[battlecrushr]

lucky canadains

[Melech518]

Sounds promising for Canadians.

[rhekt]

too bad it can only stream on 3g.

[steve-z17]

We whooped 'em last night in hockey! Stream that over your iPhone! BAM!

[FlyingJoey]

well now we can stream all the channels we pay for using the slingbox app.

[glendoor]

thats the final straw; im moving to canada now

[mikerlx]

CNN app offers live stream at times are there any others?

[lolcats1]

anal mutilation

[JacquesChirac]

pshh this is pointless if you use a slingbox with slingplayer-- wifi compatible with every channel you can imagine everywhere and at great quality (and with your dvr too)

[whereswaldo]

Bell has so many ads out for this, and it's on all their smartphones, not just the iPhone

[Dark Angel]

I wonder if Rogers will offer a little something to the likes of this.

[moon#pie]

That's a little backwards that it only works on 3g and not wifi.

[TheOnlyest]

Lucky bastids... ay?

[DoYouLikeLuxury?]

CNN app offers live stream at times are there any others?

I think France 24 is live.

[bengo]

That's a little backwards that it only works on 3g and not wifi.

I'm sure they are hoping to get people to go over their monthly data usage.

[thecork]

With the demand for live TV growing at a rapid pace, Nokia today similarly introduced what some call an"iPhone-worthy" app dubbed "Sky Mobile TV: Live sports on the move." As simple as it sounds, with the mobile TV app, Sky customers (with certain Nokia handsets) are now able to view Sky Sports live on their mobile devices.

What i dont get is why MMi can be so far behind on things sometimes. The Sky Mobile TV App has been on the iPhone, let-alone nokias, for months, and about a month ago they removed the wifi restriction to allow 3G streaming, yet no news of that ever appeared here! I've had skysports live on mine for ages and love it!

[M4tt Dam0n]

Bell is really great. They're pushing 3G by making it only available on 3G and with no extra fee and no extra hardware. At&T on the other hand...

[edge777]

It's 3G only, not so that they can get people to go over on data usage, but rather so that it only works on their network (they want it to be a Bell thing).

[Peligro0]

no..fair..