Virgin Mobile, a unit of NTL, will launch the broadcast mobile TV and radio service, based on BT Group's BT Movio platform, on October 1.

The service will initially offer four programmes - BBC 1, ITV1, a cut-down version of Channel 4 for mobile phones, and Channel 4's E4 entertainment channel. Customers on a Virgin Mobile contract of £25 ($47) or more per month will receive the service free, while others can purchase it for £5 per month. High Tech Computer (HTC) is providing the first phone for viewing the service, the Lobster 700, for £199.

The UK launch comes as manufacturers and network operators in Europe battle over a standard for broadcast mobile TV services.

Europe's first service, based on a standard called Terrestrial-Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB), was launched commercially at the start of the World Cup soccer tournament in June by mobile phone service reseller Debitel AG and Mobiles Fernsehen Deutschland GmbH (MFD).

But Germany's four cellular operators back a rival standard, Digital Video Broadcast-Handset (DVB-H), which, they claim offers more channels and better quality.

The availability of spectrum was the main reason that German state broadcasting authorities gave the green light for T-DMB, based on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) standard, ahead of DVB-H.

The situation in the UK is similar. DAB is the only broadcast spectrum currently available to mobile operators there. BT's mobile TV platform, BT Movio, is something of a novelty, blending DAB with IP technology. It is one of two standards that support mobile TV on DAB spectrum: DAB-IP and T-DMB.

BT selected DAB-IP not only because of DAB's available spectrum, but also because of its flexibility, according to a BT document. The IP layer in DAB is common to the IP used in other technologies, such as the rival broadcast system, DVB-H, and systems that stream TV including 3G (third-generation) cellular broadband, Wi-Fi and WiMax, according to the document. This means that DAB-IP back-end systems, which encode, manage and deliver content, can be re-used for any IP-carrying bearer - whether broadcast T-DMB or streamed 3G.

With the continuing debate around standards, BT believes that the eventual winner will be a combination of standards and technologies. With BT Movio, the UK operator says that it has designed a platform designed to offer a consistent service over new broadcast standards as they evolve and come to market.

The BT Movio platform also uses Digital Right Management (DRM) technology from Microsoft.