Live Mobile TV expands in Africa

Orange Senegal, a mobile-TV service that produces content over 3G bandwidth, has announced that it will now be providing live TV to its subscribers in Senegal in West Africa. Canal Horizons and Sonatel have signed a content deal to bring a large number of channels to the service, including TV5 Monde, France 24, TFM, 2STV, Africa, Africa 24, record TV, Infosport and the Action film channel.

While the excitement builds over bringing live television programming to this area, most exciting is the addition of on-demand. Serving a growing need for its customers, Senegal is tightly focused on providing programming that is centered around people’s schedules. Content producers can now showcase shows that can be shifted to any time of the day.

The plans vary for the live-programming aspect, but some examples are 30-minute access and 10-hour blocks. The service does require a compatible 3G handset and a prepaid SIM card, which is available at any number of vendors in the region.