CNN: No Exclusive Mobile Deal With AT&T

Says It Provides Carrier With Some Content But Doesn’t Have Exclusive Agreement

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 4/7/2008 4:00:00 PM

The head of AT&T’s wireless division said last week that CNN would provide the carrier’s second “exclusive” TV channel — but the programmer said there is currently no such deal in place.

Speaking at the CTIA Wireless 2008 show in Las Vegas last week, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega said CNN would supply an exclusive news channel for AT&T’s mobile TV service, which is expected to launch in May, RCR Wireless News reported.

However, CNN Worldwide director of public relations Jen Martin said, “there is no deal in place do that with AT&T.” She added that CNN currently provides some content to AT&T but that it is not an exclusive agreement.

AT&T spokeswoman Jenny Parker confirmed the remarks de la Vega made at CTIA, but she declined to comment further.

CNN does not distribute a mobile simulcast of its domestic channel, although Sprint Nextel offers a separately programmed live mobile CNN channel provided through MobiTV. Live feeds of CNN International are distributed in more than two dozen countries outside the U.S., including with Vodafone in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Portugal and The Netherlands.

AT&T, the largest mobile phone service provider in the United States, anticipates launching its mobile TV service next month with the eight channels delivered by Qualcomm’s MediaFLO USA subsidiary.

The carrier announced that one of the exclusive channels would be Sony Pictures Television’s PIX, featuring full-length movies from Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star, ScreenGems and Sony Pictures Classics. The first Sony titles to be available include Bugsy, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Memento, Philadelphia and Resident Evil.