The free-of-charge news service features 120 stories each day, ranging from breaking news to top stories on business, sports and entertainment. Users can enjoy hourly video news updates, get weather reports from more than 1000 cities worldwide and access blogs from CNN correspondents in the field. The service is available to users via the link http://cnnmobile.com. Some European operators have now started to include the link in the news category of their portals.
Juergen Nagel, business manager for Turner Services at Ericsson, says top news, sports and weather are the most popular items, while users in Europe and Africa are the most active. "Besides Western Europe, the countries where the services are used most are in Africa, such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. Even though we have not yet officially launched the service in North America, we are already attracting a lot of users from that area." The mobile news service, initially introduced in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, will be launched in the Americas, Asia and Australia at a later date.
CNN Mobile is only the first in a range of services developed jointly by Ericsson and Turner Broadcasting. A CNN Java client application is in final development, with more functionality and animations for a richer user experience. Next in line is the launch of a Cartoon Network portal in the UK in September, offering the likes of Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry and The Flintstones, as well as content including ringtones, games and wallpapers.
Tony Ragan, acting head of Mobile Digital Media at Turner Broadcasting, says the partnership between the two companies - combining the delivery of Turner news and entertainment content with hosting and content management technology developed by Ericsson - is an ideal match. "Ericsson is a company that has a similar global footprint to Turner's; it is just as innovative, and is looking at the future for mobile products and future-proofing those products," he says.
"The collaboration with Ericsson means that we can maintain our focus on being a media company, exporting our content across different platforms. What Ericsson does is bring its technology behind that. A central hosting and delivery system provides economies of scale and it's also really valuable having a one-stop shop from a process point of view. Ericsson also has deep operator relationships on a local level -relationships that Turner and other media companies don't have. It's an ideal marriage."
