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Once upon a time, twenty television channels looked like a lot to choose from to a typical household. Today, satellite and cable providers deliver hundreds of stations.

With cell phone TV—highlighted by a number of vendors at CTIA Wireless 2005 in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago—twenty stations still seems like a cornucopia.

To Sprint, Cingular/AT&T Wireless, and Midwest Wireless subscribers, live television from over a score channels is already a reality because of a company named Idetic's MobiTV service.

For $10 per month, on top of your current voice and data plans, stations like MSNBC, CNBC, ABC News Now, NBC Mobile, FOX Sports, Discovery, TLC, C-SPAN, and other music, sports, fashion, and comedy channels are steamed live to your phone at frame rates of around 15 frames per second (fps) on a 2.5G network (i.e. Sprint) and, MotiTV told us today, up to 20 fps or more on 3G networks (i.e. Cingular with an EVDO compatible handset).

Because MobiTV runs on Java-enable phones, carriers can role it out to more -- but still a select number -- of handsets than a steaming video solution that relies on a specific media player or decoder. The Idetic representative we spoke to said Sprint has already signed up 300,000 customers for MobiTV since launching the service last August.

He asserted that television and video streaming are leading other data offerings in enabling higher ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User) for mobile operators. You see, carriers are turning increasingly to data-driven services (e.g. ringtones, games, radio, audio, e-mail, Internet, etc.) to boost earnings as voice-based earnings continue to diminish.

Batter Up
MobiTV's most recent content acquisition arrives through the extension of a deal with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. The updated agreement adds a video component to MobiTV's current ability to stream live audio feeds of every game played by the league to phones.

In a few days, on April 3rd (baseball's opening day), MobiTV customers will be able to watch live baseball games on their handsets in addition to listening to them. Similar to cable and satellite broadcasts, MobiTV's video streams are even subject to standard blackout restrictions.

Its track record for sucessfuly streaming live television and ability to block games when necessary is what led Major League Baseball to extend its agreement with MobiTV.

MLBAM VP of business development George Kliavkoff said, "MobiTV's leadership position in providing streaming live video to more handsets and wireless carriers than any other company, combined with their unique capability to black out live TV service in relevant markets—much as we do for our own Major League Basebell TV product—made them the logical choice to introduce this exciting product."

In addition to the live multimedia stream of full games, MobiTV and MLBAM will also offer video highlights and a range of non-multimedia baseball content, including game photos and stories, live division standings, pitching and hitting statistical leader boards, live box scores, screen savers, ringtones, and team logo wallpaper.