New Delhi, April 15: Doordarshan’s attempt to jump on to the mobile bandwagon may have hit a snag, but Delhi-based AirChord TeleVentures is all set to launch its mobile television service next month.

“The service will enable cellphone users to watch 50 to 60 real-time broadcast television channels on their GPRS-enabled handsets,” said Sanjay Sinha, CEO, AirChord TeleVentures Limited.

AirChord is finalising deals with various national and international channels, including Zee, MTV, B4U, India TV and few regional channels.

Sinha said the company was in the process of partnering with telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Hutch. It is also preparing a list of content providers. “We are in talks with content providers at home and abroad. AirChord will soon bring international content for Indian users,” Sinha said.

AirChord will operate on a 40 to 60 per cent revenue share model with its channel partners, which include service and content providers and handset manufacturers.

The multimedia service provider aims to garner over Rs 1 million per month from the mobile TV service, starting October 2007.

“The Indian market has a great potential for mobile TV services as the subscription base is growing at a phenomenal rate. More than six million customers are signing up for mobile services each month. With 3G also coming in, we are confident of having the first-mover advantage in the country,” Sinha said.

According to industry experts, teenagers and young professionals want to be in touch with the latest news or music while they are on the move. Hence, a technology — in a handset — that allows one to make calls while watching the stock market climb or fall will be in great demand, they feel.

“Our target audience is mainly mobile subscribers between 17 and 45 years, who have a GPRS-enabled handset and know what value a mobile can provide,” said Anil Sharma, president, AirChord TeleVentures.

Sharma predicted that by the end of 2008, more than 16 million handsets would have AirChord mobile TV.

AirChord is already in talks with handset makers such as Nokia, Samsung and LG to embed the content application and is in the final stages of signing some deals.

“For existing handsets, the operator would have to download the specific software to make it compatible to receive live TV,” Sharma said.

A basic handset enabled with 2 megabytes of memory space and general packet radio service (GPRS) is compatible with AirChord’s data streaming software. “These basic handsets are available for as low as Rs 3,500,” Sinha said.

For Rs 100 a month, a mobile service provider would be able to provide 50 channels to the subscriber.

“For premium content including foreign channels and video-on-demand a consumer would have to shell a bit more,” added Sinha.

On the question of a foray into the internet protocol television (IPTV), Sinha said, “it is in the pipeline, but initially we want to capture the market potential available in the mobile TV segment.”