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Platform: 3 mobile network

Channels: ITV1 and ITV Play simulcast

My first reaction to the news that 3 and ITV are launching live TV on mobile was, to quote Spike Milligan when he was given a lifetime achievement award for comedy in 1994, "It's about bloody time."

Finally, a strong and decisive step forward has been made for mobile phone content, and 3's 3.7 million customers can now watch ITV1 and ITV Play on their mobile phones all day. Whether they will or not, depends on two important factors.

Firstly, 3 and ITV must ensure that the technology is absolutely seamless. During my trial, I found the service is pretty impressive considering that it is streamed live at roughly half the speed of a standard broadband connection.

The picture is pretty grainy and the sound quality is lacking, especially when there is a lot of movement in the image. So watching Champions League games may be a bit annoying, but if you are on the move or nowhere near a TV, then I guess it would still be better than missing the game.

Secondly, I'm not convinced the pricing structure will work. The £5-a-month deal for an 18-channel unlimited viewing TV pack, including the ITV channels and others from Nickelodeon, Paramount and MTV, is a good deal. But 99p per day's viewing of ITV1 is comparatively expensive.

Delivering the service for free based on an advertising model would be even better. It would help grow the service faster and consumers would be more forgiving of slow download speeds and streaming. Clearly there are currently issues with artists rights in this medium, which is probably the main reason why there are no ads on this platform at the moment.

So, while this is an important step it will take some time to make a great impact in the market and for the service to find its feet. However, ITV and 3 should be applauded for driving the medium forward.

- Review by Thorsten Nolte, MEC interaction Mediaedge:cia Group Account Director.